Imperfect

unveil your words

Inspired by Fatima's The Fear of Unveiled Words.

Privacy concerns over writing on paper can be assuaged by how much our writing can help ourselves and others, even posthumously.

I'm reminded of a quote commonly attributed to Ernest Hemingway:

Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name. In some ways men can be immortal.

Leaving part of ourselves behind for others is tradition. We regularly gift sentimental property and objects to future generations. For how resilient hand-me-down oral traditions can be, written accounts could endure beside or even longer than those. Future historians might find such records valuable, whether superlative records for understanding historical events or mundane records for understanding daily life.

Who knows what happens after we are gone? Whether by statements of faith, belief, or knowledge, that question has infinite answers. My consciousness, knowledge, or sense of self might not carry over to an afterlife or my reincarnation. Who knows if there is any continuation of life beyond mortality as we know it? With how many possibilities exist, maybe people snooping through my writing could turn out great after all. Future happenings regularly defy our predictions anyhow. Imagined scenarios we become upset over now have brought us joy at other times and places.

Technology can augment the physical, sentimental, and multi-sensory values of handwriting. Have your thoughts read halfway across the world. Attempt to protect your thoughts from those whose snooping would definitely harm you. Reshape or link them together quicker than on paper. Work more efficiently to get your ideas across. Create backups, transcriptions, or other preservatives so your works are that much more protected. Thinking about synergy can yield the best of both worlds.

People read history for various reasons: understanding others, learning lessons, and drawing parallels. No matter how historical or not, each individual's personal history is valuable to someone out there. Everyone shares relatable experiences worth recording and sharing. We do it every day over social media, other communicative technologies, and our everyday romps. Leaving behind accounts of our helpful ideas, harmful mistakes, and everything in between paints a more holistic, realistic picture to learn from. When we think of how vulnerable expressing our thoughts can be, can we imagine how much more beautiful they can make the world?

If I know others and I can satisfy our hunger for learning by my recollection, I can become pervasive to satisfy them as soon as possible. If not, I can try to satisfy them within the span of humanity. I think people have much more agency than they believe for how long their selves persist in the consciousness of man.

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