AUSTIN KLEON : BLOG : Posts tagged \'Journaling\'

Time as a filter

April 1, 2018

On March 24, 1857, Thoreau journaled about memory, and how the passing of time serves as a filter for what is good or interesting:

If you are describing any occurrence, or a man, make two or more distinct reports at different times. Though you may think you have said all, you will to-morrow remember a whole new class of facts which perhaps interested most of all at the time, but did not present themselves to be reported.

On March 27, three days later, true to the topic, he polished his thoughts on the subject:

I would fain make two reports in my Journal, first the incidents and observations of to-day; and by to-morrow I review the same and record what was omitted before, which will often be the most significant and poetic part. I do not know at first what it is that charms me. The men and things of to-day are wont to lie fairer and truer in to-morrow’s memory.

Above: Thoreau’s drawing of geese in formation, March 28, 1859

In John Stilgoe’s introduction to Thoreau’s journal, he points out that “Winter prompted him to ponder journalizing.” There’s a particularly lovely entry from January 22, 1852 — exactly 166 years ago, when Thoreau was 34, the age I am now — in which he tries to lay out what he’s doing with his journal, how he’s trying to make “wholes of parts.”

(Lawrence Weiner: “BITS & PIECES PUT TOGETHER TO PRESENT A SEMBLANCE OF A WHOLE.” Mark Strand: “We all have reasons / for moving. / I move / to keep things whole.”)

Thoreau says writing is a “distinct profession to rescue from oblivion and to fix the sentiments and thoughts which visit all men more or less generally.” In other words, his thoughts aren’t necessarily special, but writing them down is.

Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg, by the side of which more will be laid. Thoughts accidentally thrown together become a frame in which more may be developed and exhibited… Having by chance recorded a few disconnected thoughts and brought them into juxtaposition, they suggest a whole new field in which it was possible to labor and to think. Thought begat thought.

Today when you say “nest egg” many think of money saved and put away, but a literal “nest egg” is a real or fake egg that you put in a nest to encourage a bird or a hen to lay more eggs there. So what Thoreau is saying is that by simply writing down a thought, you encourage more thoughts to come. When you have enough thoughts pushed together in the same space — a collage of thoughts, juxtaposed — they often lead to something totally new.

This is the magic of writing.