Lightloch's Domain

Defining myself is an ongoing goal that I have for my life. I can do this through many means, such as my actions, beliefs, choices, goals, career, family, and more. This is actually one of the primary reasons I run this weblog. One of the most important things I can do, however, is to leave a little piece of me behind that might have the opportunity to last, and maybe even be appreciated, even beyond the duration of my mortal life. One of the ways I can accomplish this is by keeping journals and other important records.

Family is an eternal principle and institution. Many persons are greatly interested in their own genealogy, or family history, and this, in my opinion, is indeed a very worthwhile pursuit. But truly, how many of us genuinely know who our ancestors were, at least beyond our grandparents? Much of family history involves sometimes lengthy and relatively complicated research (although technologically it gets easier by the day). Even if we can research names, important dates, and places, the personality, the dreams, indeed the essence of who our progenitors were is lost to us in this life. Imagine how much heritage would have been preserved if our ancestors had recorded even a brief record of their lives and ideas and passed them down from generation to generation?

Perhaps there are a great number of reasons why many such records could not have been feasibly done or preserved, but we, in this day and age, have no excuse. Thus I would encourage any who read this to start, even in a small way, recording important things pertaining to you and your life. Write a brief autobiography, make scrapbooks, keep a personal or digital journal of your important experiences, thoughts and happenings in life, or label photos. The possibilities are endless. If the idea of a complete personal biography seems daunting or too hard to accomplish in any detail, then simply write down brief, individual paragraphs or sentences about certain memories you may have from any part of your life, and keep them organized chronologically, adding to them as the past memories and experiences surface. These memories, even the smallest ones, will be priceless to your family.

It is through actions like these that we, as individuals, can effectively preserve our legacy and values for future generations. I strongly believe that it is of utmost importance that we preserve ourselves in this way so as to better define and organize ourselves, and preserve our love and affection for those who will come after us.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 5:55 PM and is filed under Life, Primary Weblog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.