Watching Star Trek yesterday I was struck with the thought of my grandchildren getting to really know me. In Sub Rosa Dr. Crusher’s grandmother dies and Beverly gets to read her journal. Out of that journal she really gets to see a side of her grandmother that she didn’t know before.

Yes a personal journal revealing deep things that no one knew is an oft used motif in film, but it’s got some real roots.

Sub Rosa has made me think about how my kids may get to know me some day. Yes they’ll know me as their father, but that’s an incomplete picture. I think many things that I wouldn’t ever tell my child, that would be fine for them to read/know after my passing.

I do keep an almost daily journal of what’s going on in my life, my thoughts and struggles. That journal is in Day One. I don’t think that Day One will be what my grandchildren use to read the entries in 80 years but the data is just text with some markup inside the Day One package. Text will be accessible.

I’d like to think that they will want a better picture of what I was in my 30’s as my family was starting. I’d like to think that I’m interesting enough to leave a legacy for them that they’ll be interested in.

I know that I get more and more interested about the generations that came before me as I get older.