Without question, I would want to get my journals. Hopefully I would have a blank one to record my experience of watching everything else burn down.Nowadays, blogging seems to be a popular way of people keeping journals. E-mail is the preferred way to correspond between family members at a distance. But with the way electronic media (computers, discs, etc.) changes at seemingly a moment's notice, how much of what is communicated by computer will be even readable in five to ten years? Face it, it really wasn't that long ago that computer storage discs were 3 1/4" discs encased in plastic of the color of your choice. And some of the computers now don't even have the disc drive to play them!
In case you have haven't heard, America has men and women serving in the front lines of a war. In past wars, our soldiers would communicate with loved ones by what is now known as "snail-mail." Those precious letters penned by the hands of young men in life and death situations became valuable pieces of history to their loved ones, and in some cases were handed down from generation to generation. How much of our current history is being lost by the "delete" button, or by a hard-drive that unexpectedly crashes?
Even for those who are not serving our country, how many photos will our grandchildren not be able to see because the digital technology of today will have gone the way of the 8-track or Beta-Max?
I'm not saying that anything in my personal journal (or on my blog, for that matter) is so profound that it's worthy of winning a literary prize. I don't even know if they'll ever be read by anyone else. But I choose to write in my journal anyway. Maybe it's just my way of seeking to be immortal.
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