Jeffrey C. Long

I’ve been mulling over the amount of information that I archive. It seems a little obsessive, even self-absorbed. My poor children are going to have to cope with it all when I am gone. I have five 3″ binders filled with my writings from about 5-10 years ago. And now with the computer and internet, I’ve been collecting more: Nearly every email dating back 3 years; every sermon and the notes used to write them for the past year and a half; brainstorming; web pages I’ve captured; lyrics; over 40 gigs worth of mp3′s; 607 bookmarks in del.icio.us.

But what I’ve discovered is that it is worth saving this stuff… all of it, even if I only occasionally need one thing. Because if I didn’t save it all, I wouldn’t have that one thing. This happened recently when I was looking for an article I’d clipped 10 years ago. For some reason, I had page one, only to discover that I was missing page two. I emailed the author to see if she still had a copy which she said she’d have to dig for. So I went into my trusty three ring binders, and lo and behold, there it was. Similarly, I needed an article called paradoxa that I posted to my Journey blog, and again, it was right where I left it… sandwiched however by pages of things I may never need.

The point is: save every scrap. I know this may drive some secretaries and wives nuts. But if I didn’t have 607 bookmarks, I wouldn’t have the 3 that I need.