Dear Diary

Who doesn't love research? Some enterprising scientists decided to delve into the benefits of writing. What they found was not surprising, at least to me.  The only thing I love to do more than reading is writing. Yay for me as their research appears to prove that writing about yourself and your experiences or opinions is healthy... Wow, for once we're learning about something that IS healthy. Writing about oneself can improve mood disorders, reduce medical symptoms while actually improving your health, reduce doctor visits and even boost your memory!!!   (Now what was I talking about...?)
Researchers found that writing about yourself and then rewriting with a positive spin actually made the writers more positive, progressive individuals.  Students became more academically sound, specific socio-economic groups became more successful and even married couples resolved conflict by writing about their conflicts as neutral observers. A Duke professor summed it up by saying, "These writing interventions can really nudge people from a self-defeating way of thinking into a more optimistic cycle that reinforces itself." 
I write in a journal daily.  I have for several years.  I also write this enlightening, entertaining and informative blog :-) several days a week. I still have my diaries from my teenage years. I read them often. Life was simple, problems were few and times were good. I'm definitely an apple that fell off a narrative tree.  I have found journals from my great grandparents, my grandparents and my parents.  I'm pretty sure they never intended them to be read decades later but the prose, the anecdotes and the history are priceless.  I've read everything from daily weather forecasts and courting disasters to little men at night and big men in politics.  These family litanies were never rewritten and never researched and probably only appeased the idle time of the writers.  Somehow, putting pen to paper (or now fingers to keypads) is extremely cathartic.  I too, do not rewrite a story or entry for purposes other than grammatical correctness. but if asked to reflect about what I've written and possibly come up with a new "more honest" assessment, I could probably do it.  I'm not sure the  words would change all that much but the outcome just might.  I have always professed that you are the only one who can make yourself happy.  Maybe by re-examining what I write and how I say it, I can be happier too. WTF, I'll give it a try and apologize in advance to the future generations who may believe I must have been an opinionated, old, son of a bitch!