Lesson: Be a Better Documentarian of Your Life

Wendy and I are out in Medfield, Massachusetts, because her grandfather died and we came out for the funeral, which will be tomorrow in Plymouth. Last night Bill and Jane (Wendy's parents) pulled out a lot of his old photos they had found in his apartment. He kept a lot of things, which is sort of a problem for them, but because he was an only child and he always lived on the East Coast, he was able to keep a lot of really important things--pictures of himself, his family, his friends, all throughout the ages, many of them recorded with names, dates, and locations. He also kept some very nice telegrams and letters he sent home during the war.

When someone dies, the antiques, heirlooms, and artifacts are nice but they don't hold on to someone's identity the way pictures and letters do. If there's one thing I can learn from him, it's that we should all be better documentarians of our lives. We all have access now to great tools--digital cameras, editing software, even blogs like this--but it only makes us create more data, not focus it or organize it better.