self-examination
Sep. 14th, 2003 12:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonarkToday I find myself reading past entries in my own journal. I hate it when I notice a comment I really liked at the time, but forgot to reply to in my own turn. I like that I can read an entry in my journal, and get a sense of continuity and of memory of the time and place as to the time about which I journaled. Maybe this is what I've missed by failing to keep a paper diary all these years.
In my literature classes in college, the professors kept making the point that those old Puritan journals were kept for the purpose of monitoring salvation. If one was acting gracefully each day, perhaps hellfire was not one's destiny. I do not believe that I draw any similar conclusions from my journal.
I've been reading Meyer's "The Positive Thinkers", a critique of the folks who began with new thought and have not ended yet. I'd scanned it before, and yet today it seems more poignant to me. What if this belief in words and mind is misplaced? Whatever happened to good old hard work? What if, in addition to all the forces arrayed outside the physical plane, there was the need for just simple kindness, and maybe a little elbow grease?
Complacency.Perhaps that is my enemy and my constant friend.
In my literature classes in college, the professors kept making the point that those old Puritan journals were kept for the purpose of monitoring salvation. If one was acting gracefully each day, perhaps hellfire was not one's destiny. I do not believe that I draw any similar conclusions from my journal.
I've been reading Meyer's "The Positive Thinkers", a critique of the folks who began with new thought and have not ended yet. I'd scanned it before, and yet today it seems more poignant to me. What if this belief in words and mind is misplaced? Whatever happened to good old hard work? What if, in addition to all the forces arrayed outside the physical plane, there was the need for just simple kindness, and maybe a little elbow grease?
Complacency.Perhaps that is my enemy and my constant friend.
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-14 11:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-14 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-15 04:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-14 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-15 04:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-15 02:39 am (UTC)I like those old Puritan journals.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-15 04:23 am (UTC)