This month I have started reading The Splendid and the Vile and one thing that really stuck with me was the use of diaries to tell the story. Not only the personal diaries of Churchill, but diarists who were recruited volunteers to “keep daily diaries with the goal of helping sociologists better understand ordinary British life.”

I was talking about this with Nate and about how good it must have been for people’s brains. To sit down and actually think back over their days. Over what people were wearing…what they had for breakfast…how they felt. The act of recalling it all. And we have deeply reaped the benefits of their daily practice.

It got me thinking about instagram, and how quickly the waters are shifting. On the one hand, I love it. It’s entertaining and informative and fast-paced. On the other hand, I fear we might be losing something. Losing the ability to contemplate. The discipline to write. The hard work of remembering.

I don’t have any firm conclusions for this. But it does have me thinking about how I want to use my brain in the upcoming year. Perhaps how I will use my brain will be my biggest focus for 2021. New ways to exercise and protect it. To water it well and see new fruit grow.

Is this something you have been thinking about? Do you have any ways you protect your mind or seek to grow it? I would love to hear.