Power

Why is it that we all think we have something to say? We don’t even know what it is that we are contributing, but we want to contribute it nonetheless – just in case. We read the diary of Anne Frank and realize that yes, it is possible to have our thoughts count for something. So we keep journals, diaries, blogs… It is said that writing things out helps one to process things internally - to see contradictions, to see connections, to enable us to understand. But if that is the only purpose, then why keep them? Why re-read those entries that were written in joy, pain, and confusion? To remember, we say. In order to not forget the past and so repeat it. But if we understand ourselves, as some would say, to be a result of our accumulated past, and if it is intrinsic to human nature to be addicted - to not be able to control our actions at all points in time - then wouldn’t our pasts be repeated anyway? Whether we remember or not? And then, if we do change – if that change is a true transformation of character – then that past wouldn’t be repeated anyway because our actions come out of our character, and our character wouldn’t allow it.

But despite the irrationalness of keeping journals, millions of people do. And not only in the privacy of those pink Hello Kitty ones with lock and key, where 9-year-old girls tell their diary whom they love and stick notes and bracelets between the pages. No, people put their thoughts and feelings online for everyone to read. This I do not understand.

But I think it is because we innately believe that we have something to offer, something to contribute. We don’t know what it is, and we’re too dense to figure it out ourselves, but we are stupidly hopeful beings, who believe that someday, someone somewhere will see our thoughts and ideas and consider them profound. We’ll become the hero of something that we never meant to promote in the first place, and in all reality are probably fundamentally against, but no matter. We will become heroes. Geniuses. Influentialists. Who knows? We might even accomplish an unread quote on the side of a milk carton.