There's a tiny piazza in Venice, Italy near the open air markets called Corte del Milion. You get to it after ducking through a low tunnel and once you're inside, it's quiet. Surrounded on all sides by buildings, it's characteristic of Venice's narrow alleyway-type streets, the kind that should make you feel claustrophobic but instead make you feel cosy. That piazza, hidden away in the middle of Venice's catacomb of streets, is where we find the home of Marco Polo. To the right of his historic abode is a Greek marble arch that he has written about in his writings, so we know that in his day-to-day life, he saw that very arch, just as we see it now. It's truly spectacular to stand in that square and take in the sight.
Marco Polo was, according to Italian history, the first western explorer to explore the East. He was actively exploring during the 13th century. When he would come home, he would be laden with beautiful things and even more beautiful stories from his travels, which would impress his neighbors. But Marco Polo wouldn't just tell his stories to the people nearest to him. He would write it all down. This is one of the most crucial pieces of information about Marco Polo; he was smart enough to write down what he saw. Surely, he was not the first western explorer who traveled to the East in search of trading posts and goods. But he was one of the very first to ever write down his travels, so that people far and wide, in both space and time, could hear his stories. What good would his travels have been, who today would have known his name, if he had not written down and preserved his memories? What good are the travels of those who explored but had no way of recording what they saw? We don't know their names of their stories. Marco Polo was one of the first to see what he saw, and his writings brought those far away sights to many, many people, even centuries after he passed away.
In history, recording events is incredibly important. It's so important that people write down what's occurring around them. Otherwise, events are shared with the people around you and then no one else. We would never hear of anyone's stories. We would never know what that far away mountain range looks like or what kind of dream vacations other people are going on. All we would know are the lives we and our friends have lived. When you write down your experiences, everyone and anyone can read them. Anyone can experience the things you are experiencing. Regardless of whether you morally agree with or support the history or not, it's important to recognize that you wouldn't even know of any history if it wasn't recorded by someone.
This is why I believe it's so important to keep a journal or a blog or a diary or a vlog or a photo journal, some type of written, preserved record of the things you are seeing and the life you're living. Sure, you might not be "exploring" things in the same sense as the New World explorers, but in a way, we're all pioneers. We're all seeing things and making discoveries, at first in our own lives, but that may some day lead to something much bigger than just ourselves. At the very least, recording your own life creates a history for you and for your family. When you're toward the end of life-- or maybe not something not as drastic, simply when you're toward the end of a life phase-- you can look back on the memories of the important days that you have captured in your own words. You can remember what it felt like to be there, in that time. You can relive details that you may have forgotten. You can pass on those memories and those lessons to the rest of your family. There's something truly transcendent about reliving your life that way, with a nostalgic happiness.
There's no point keeping the voice inside of yourself locked up. You are living a unique story-- share it. Modern technology gives us the freedom and access to share what we're living as we're living it. Take advantage of it. Capture every moment that you think might be worth remembering. Out of 100 memories you capture, you'll probably really only care about 5, but those are the diamonds in the rough. Edisons journals weren't filled cover to cover with good ideas-- remember, it took him 1000 tries to get the light bulb right. That's a 1000 pages with just one page that was "worth it", but what an important page it was. So, I say, don't be afraid to capture the world in your words. It's your world and it's more than worth it.
