The other day I was listening to the January 13, 2006 podcasted episode of National Public Radio’s Science Friday and heard a segment about Ben Franklin’s 300th birthday. Professor H. W. Brands, from the University of Texas at Austin said, “One of the things I tell my students is that if they want to become immortal, all they have to do is to keep a diary — and I tell them to keep a written dairy and keep it relatively faithfully but just make sure when they die, they turn it over to the local historical society. Because if they do, then they will be immortal in the sense that historians 100 years from now — 200 years from now who are wanting to write the history of daily life of our times will turn to those sorts of sources because they are gonna be so rare.”

What an interesting statement. Have you ever kept a diary? I have. From the time I was a sophomore in college, I have a kept a diary. I haven’t been faithful with it. I’ll write it in every day for months, and then miss an entire year. I love doing it, the issue for me has always been the time to do it. Speaking of diaries, I think it is high time I go back and read some of those diaries. They should make for some pretty interesting reading right about now.

–Pete