What is this WT?
We’ve a steadily growing community—Welcome to our 18 new members since last week, we’re now 483 total!—but participation is growing slower.
My idea is to encourage people in participating more by pushing a weekly theme. It’s an invitation, not a mandatory theme. Feel free to comment about anything else related to journaling, or to start your own thread ;)
This week theme: If by journaling it you could change one thing in the past…
News aren’t that great and I thought it might be an interesting way to reuse a classic sifi theme. So, if by journaling it, writing it or skecthing it down in your journal, you could change any past event, not something global like an election, a war, some castatrophic event, or anything like that but something directly linked to you daily or to the people close to you.
- Would you use that power?
- What would you change?
New sub here after seeing it on fedigrow.
I do interstitial journaling as part of my PKM.
To answer the questions:
Would I? Even tough my mind feels a resolute “nope!”, I would say yes, such power would just be too much to not use. (Or try). I would put small experiments first to see what can, and what the consequences are of changing the past.
What would I change? I would try to alter small events that caused me great grief later on but not the big things. I feel those have made me who I am, good or bad.
What I’d rather try to do is change the timeline to skip certain parts, like fast-forwarding in a movie. Go from my ex-gf to my now wife (without the rebounds and akward flirtings).
Change which friends I would meet sooner, so I’d have more time with them. Knowing friends come and go, the ones who stay… I wish I could add years to those friendships.
Also change little habits that would improve my health down the line so I can live longer.
And maybe I would try to change my career, so I could have started where I am now but younger so I didn’t burn-out on an ex-job. I do feel the burn-out forged me, so I might leave that in.
Tl; dr i’d change nothing big, just adjust the timeline and leave out everything that didn’t change or add value to me as a person. (In a way I would Marie Kondo my past but keeling everything that made me feel, and dropping everything I’m indifferent for.)
Hi, I’m one of the new subscribers. Thank you for all your work in this community.
As for your question, I probably wouldn’t use the power, but that’s because I only write things in my journal that I want to remember. For me, the journal is a place full of good and positive memories.
Hi, I’m one of the new subscribers.
Welcome :)
Thank you for all your work in this community.
Thx. That’s not much. On Reddit, I was much of a lurker/commenter, seldom initiating anything but freshly debarked here and realizing how few of use were around, I decided I should try to be more active if I wanted things to change and the community to grow. Looking forward to the day I will be able to retire and enjoy all the other participants worki…posting and commenting hard while I take a nap on the couch ;)
As for your question, I probably wouldn’t use the power, but that’s because I only write things in my journal that I want to remember. For me, the journal is a place full of good and positive memories.
That’s interesting. I never dared do that or not for very long, to be honest. But I understand why I would want to do it, and how would like to read my journal like that, even more so in times like the ones that are coming. It’s a whole other type of tool, imho, and one that may be very helpful.
I tend to write down postives and negatives. Otherwise I feel I get a glam’d up version of my past.
Blessed (and cursed) with a memory that can remember everything it sees, journaling helps me with my anxiety of waking up and not remembering.
Wouldn’t you change the past to be able to add even more good stuff?
![[Weekly Thread] #10 Changing the past through journaling?](https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/8c846471-ffe3-4c3d-bab9-b6293982a74d.png){kind=link}