Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
History Belongs to the Organized
They say that history belongs to the victors, and I suppose that’s true, but as I was making my family’s 2015 photo album a few weeks ago, it occurred to me that in many ways, history belongs to the organized.
Start with the photo albums: Sure, they have a certain amount of spin—I’m not snapping candids as I force my sixth graders to finish their homework or fighting about curfew with my 11th grader. What goes into the photo album are lovingly curated photos of the best and the most iconic moments of any given year—the Christmas tree, an epic vacation in London, but also the disaster in my kitchen after my kids bake. I want a little grit and reality, but not too much. I imagine (hope) that, over time, the images in the album are what my children will remember while the petty fights fade into the background.
Along the same lines, I suspect future historians will be more apt to look at the well-cataloged archive of the organized person, be they political leaders or artists, than the utter mess of the disorganized person, if the mess even survives to be studied.
And consider legal disputes: He who can find the proof, be it an e-mail or a receipt, will fare better than the person whose story has no backup. It doesn’t mean you should keep everything, but it means that you should be able to find everything.
Besides, we should all be here now; social media isn’t the only way to spin your own story, it doesn’t have to be “live.” In the long term, the way you curate and file memories counts too.