Mr Mascellani's Musings

The Power and The Paradox Of Keeping A Journal

May you live in interesting times- ancient Chinese saying


It was, I think, the French 'philosopher' Jacques Derrida who claimed that the repetition of the same is the 'death of any system'.

And there's nothing like keeping a daily journal to remind oneself of that fact.


There's nothing like a journal to remind oneself that one is in a rut, that one's life has become mundane, routine, repetitive,
systematized,


Dead.



But there in lies the power and the paradox of keeping a journal.


The less one does the more time one has to write but then one does not have much to write about and, conversely, the more one does
the more one has to write but less time to write it down.

(Yes, I know that this isn't really a 'paradox' but I am going for a dramatic effect.)


And thus, reminded of the dull repetitiveness of one's life, one is usually spurned on to 'doing things', getting in amongst it', 'getting a

life'.


That is the power of keeping a journal. But it comes usually, as mentioned above, at the expense of the journal.Hmmmmm, it would


Hmmmm, it seems that people either slow down or stop all together their journal if their lives are either too 'mundane' or

'dramatic'. One's journal then is a good barometer for gauging the balance one's life.


My musings have ended go in peace.