Burning Old Journals

[tnavarro61]

Hello phriends! I was cleaning my bookshelves, and my old journals are there. I was wondering if I should burn them. I realized that there will come one day that I have to leave these journals, someone might read them and take what I have written out of context, and may become a source of gossisp and misunderstandings. But there are also spiritual gems, as well as deep secrets. What shall I do.

Hopefully I'll receive serious and sincere responses here. (I'm sorry!!!! but I know some of you would answer something different to joke, like what I have experienced when I asked if I should shave my head.)

God bless you!

[Ash Wednesday]

You could always include a note or a disclaimer at the start of the journal pointing out that these were written at a different time in your life, or obscure names...
I kind of wish I would have kept some of my old journals, especially the ones as a teenager. They would have been good for a laugh.

"He doesn't know I exist, I see him in the halls every day, I'd pray 40 rosaries to meet him!"

My aunt has some of my grandmother's old journals. Honestly to me they were just a glimpse of her at one period in her life, but overall they have no bearing on how I've always remembered her. They mentioned a couple of men she dated before she met my grandfather, and how she had slapped one of them that had been out of line. But mostly it was a great source of interest and sometimes amusement.

"Got a finger wave today. Going to see the latest Clark Gable movie..."

Our old parish RCIA instructor sometimes read from her old journals to the group to demonstrate how one's relationship with God can change over time.

Edited April 19, 2011 by Ash Wednesday

[AccountDeleted]

Depends on what the content is. A Jesuit priest told me to keep journals to remind myself during times of desolation that there are also times of consolation. Because when one is in such a time, it seems as if there will never be light again.

If they are mainly spiritual in nature, keep them. Or edit them to remove identifying names/place etc. I tend to use abbreviations or code names of real people and places as these things are not really necessary and as you point out, they could cause distress or confusion to others who might accidently read them. If they are just juvenile ramblings, then perhaps it is time to get rid of them and move on, and only you can judge whether they have any potential value to you in the future....

[Luigi]

I'll pick up on Nunsense's idea and say edit them - you can edit a little bit (obscure the names, etc) or a lot (tear out the really silly stuff but keep the gems). You could cut out the good pages and keep them in a folder, or retype them and keep them as electronic files.

[Laudate_Dominum]

Get some good airtight stainless steel containers and bury them. Maybe thirty years from now you'll find it amusing to dig them up again and read. Random thought anyway. Prolly got it from a movie.

[cmaD2006]

Agreed with Luigi ... you could cut and paste the good parts into a new journal ... just check the back of the page before you do just that (you may need to photocopy some pages). That would be better than completely tossing them. To which I say and vote -- NO. You'll regret it later. I know of a current sister that in a moment of craziness/zeal she threw away/burnt all of her journals. She really wishes that she hadn't.

[Tally Marx]

I have several volumes of journals and I've gone through them several times for editing purposes. In the older ones (from when I was twelve and younger) I found just a bunch of silly kiddie stuff, and those I threw away completely, with few exceptions (for example, I kept my account of when my brother died). As for all the other volumes, I kept them, and edited them only slightly (mainly correcting misinformation realized in hindsight). I kept names of people and places, because unless it was gossip or something that could hurt someone, I didn't see anything wrong with it.
So, I'd say do some editing, but don't falsify, and do not burn them.

Edited April 19, 2011 by Tally Marx

[Guest blueshadow]

I would probably just keep them. If I was worried about the contents causing issues later on, I would reread them, transfer them to another format, edit out the parts that would cause trouble and otherwise had no historical or spiritual value, and *then* burn the originals. I would want to keep most of them intact for posterity -- I think it's really sad that we lose our family stories so easily, and journals are one way of preserving where we came from.