I spent the last few days of 2017 going through old files.
Rather exciting from my perspective. You see, as a trained archivist and one who has worked in archives, I love paper trails. They lead to all sorts of places.
Places we don’t expect.
Explore with me some of the places paper trails, or digital trails, lead.
In 1986 I worked on contract in the University of Alberta archives. As an archivist, we are not called on to disturb the order of the papers, or to change file labels, or to really do anything other than to inventory and summarize what is in the papers. Historians are then called on to interpret the papers, psychologists analyze the behaviours, sociologists find patterns, theologians discuss purpose . . . everyone seems to have a take on the data – but first you have to have data!!
My job was fairly easy. Write down an inventory of the paper records from a forest management of officer. The accumulator/donor was passionate about the forest. His desire was to do the best for the forest. If that meant letting fire purify the deadwood, then let the fire go! If that meant defying environmentalists when their ideas were in the ether and not down to earth, then fire away!
The archival papers also revealed his organizational approach to life. His papers were organized to be transferable to others. As one of those caught in his web, I looked forward to the next day’s work – to peer into this man’s life and his passions.
I began to realize that even his file labels and subject headings were a reflection of what he believed. He used vocational language when focused on professionals. He used everyday language in his general correspondence. His personal correspondence reflected his own loves and likes – in the language of the one who was receiving the correspondence.
My challenge to you? Live life passionately! Learn your own priorities, understand your biases. Start by looking over you own paper trails (or digital trails). Scraps of paper, file folders, Facebook postings, emails . . .
What do you put forward as your passion? What language do you use to push yourself into the world around you? What do you value?
Try a bit of mathematics. What categories gets the greatest percentage of focus? That’s your current priority. Are these your true priorities? What do you truly value? Do you need to move into a new set of priorities?
New year’s resolutions should not be about the branches that eventually grow up around your life, but about the root that sustains your life. Find your roots and you’ll find your new year’s resolutions.
