Culture thrives on the expressive interpretation of both ordinary and extraordinary testimony by common people. An important part of cultural preservation happens through storytelling. While storytelling began orally, as materials became available, stories were captured by writers. There are lots of ways to find out how a past culture would preserve stories or information. One of the most common is through archeological excavation.

Through archeology, we learn about philosophies, technologies and language by digging up artifacts. I often wonder what the future would discover when observing the way we tell our stories today. Will technology preserve the millions of blogs and websites that thousands of people turn to for information? What about books? So many years after the invention of the printing press, books are published right and left and I wonder exactly which will be preserved to represent the whole of society.

Writing for the public was not always so sophisticated. It is only relatively recent for so many to have a public voice. Writing has not seemed ever to have been a glamourous career. In fact, many now famous writers lived a poor and unknown existence during their lifetime. But each has contributed a piece of their cultural history, preserved through their eyes as independent wordsmiths, artists seeking to capture a feeling or thought through poetry and literature. The value of such contributions is great, and since we have no evidence of video blogs before the twentieth century, preserved writings is the a choice method of cultural study and representation. Writing is a vital part of the world’s history; evidence of connection and relationship.

Now, we use computers, or at the very least a gel-based ballpoint pen, and I think about literary heroes who devoted themselves to writing despite difficulties of the medium, in many cases writing and rewriting with smudgy unrefined ink. And as they finished, I wonder what kind of brief thoughts raced through their head as they exhaled powerfully, using their own life breath to dry the ink on the page. Did they try to imagine the glory and fame that might one day be? Was it worry that their characters may be misunderstood? Or, was it a euphoric feeling of self fulfillment?

Before the ink dries, consider that what you have to say represents a culture of many who are connected through common understanding and reason. While it is true that in the present, your story is a unique contribution for today’s readers, your writing preserves more than only yourself to future generations.