so i'm reading love's executioner by irvin yalom and it's an anthology of patient-therapist accounts from his perspective as a psychiatrist. very interesting. the last one i read is about an older patient, 65+, who confides in the therapist and asks him to be the keeper of the patient's own secret love letters. made me think and not because i have any secrets, let alone secret love letters, but i've thought about this before: why keep old letters? old diaries? and are they equivalent, letters and diaries? has anyone thrown them out? why did u? did it feel mostly good or bad when doing so?
i always feel and claim that letters and journals are like ammunition for artwork. i remember presenting an artwork that consisted in taking fortunes out of fortune cookies and replacing them with one liners from my old diaries. the concept was that we are all the same and also, history repeats itself. my diary yesterday could easily be someone else's diary tomorrow. we sort of all go through similar feelings triggered by different situations. either way, why do we keep these things? it cannot simply and only be to prolong our lives despite our mortality. that's too easy. what does it mean then? how do these old journals, diaries, letters add to my life today? am i the only who keeps them? do u keep'em as well?
