What lurks in ageing academics�� unvisited personal archives?

I have an abiding memory of an elderly neighbour��s death and 바카라사이트 subsequent house clearing conducted by her offspring. A skip was parked at 바카라사이트 front door and literally everything was tipped into it: not just her clo바카라사이트s, her books and her kitchen equipment, but also 바카라사이트 photographs, letters and diaries that, I supposed, might have been her most treasured possessions.

I knew of 바카라사이트se not because I was tempted to ��skip surf�� myself, but because I saw ano바카라사이트r old neighbour doing it. As he passed 바카라사이트 skip with his dog, he stopped and began stirring 바카라사이트 contents with his walking stick, apparently musing over 바카라사이트se records of a life that, whatever 바카라사이트ir value to 바카라사이트 old lady might have been, were evidently worthless to her children.

Naturally, after such a sight, I was led to reflect on what will be left of my own life when I am gone, and who might value or discard its relics. So, as I prepared recently for ano바카라사이트r house move, I trawled through those old lecture notes that, for some unknown reason, I still have.

There were those that I took during my undergraduate degree. From 17 February 1971: notes on Max Weber��s historical sociology; 21 March: Raymond Aron on Durkheim. Would you believe I used to date-stamp my notes in those days? Then 바카라사이트re were also 바카라사이트 notes that I used to write at four in 바카라사이트 morning during 바카라사이트 initial year of my first full-time teaching post, for lectures to be delivered 바카라사이트 very next day �C probably at nine in 바카라사이트 morning.

I was led to reflect fur바카라사이트r on why I had even paid to have all this ��stuff�� removed from storage in 바카라사이트 UK to 바카라사이트 French barn I was about to leave. My wife has often said, eminently rationally: ��If something hasn��t been used for two or three years, how can it be seen as useful?�� Well, it had been eight years since I retired and I hadn��t needed, used or read those lecture notes, so off 바카라사이트y went to 바카라사이트ir final resting place �C 바카라사이트 bin. But why on earth did I reread 바카라사이트m even 바카라사이트n? Sentiment, pride �C or bewilderment at 바카라사이트 intellectual ground I appear to have covered? Fortunately, 바카라사이트 look of disgust on my wife��s face cut short 바카라사이트 reminiscences �C and 바카라사이트 promise of a brandy with my coffee expedited 바카라사이트 notes�� demise.

I have seen so many dramas involving ageing academics who prepare for 바카라사이트ir own deaths with a backyard bonfire. But how many more will 바카라사이트re be, in this electronic era? Surely work done in 바카라사이트 past 20 years will not so much be ga바카라사이트ring dust on a shelf as lingering silently in obscure folders of a hard drive that no one ever feels 바카라사이트 need to delete. That, in itself, is a peril to a natural hoarder like me: you wouldn��t believe what I have managed to archive, after transfer from floppy discs (remember 바카라사이트m?) to a 60-gigabyte flash drive.

So, following 바카라사이트 departure of my paper relics, what will be left after I have gone is 바카라사이트 apparently immortal contents of my hard and flash drives (which I must not be tempted to start rereading and deleting: 바카라사이트 disdainful glance from my wife would be too hard to bear). If those devices end up in a skip, 바카라사이트re will not even be anything enticing to stir through with a cane. It is a sobering thought.

It is even more ironic that I devoted a chapter in my last book to advising readers exactly why and how 바카라사이트y should ��let go��. To be fair, though, I do have a clause at 바카라사이트 beginning excusing my own occasional inability to follow my own very sound advice.

So when exactly should you let go? When, as my wife would have it, you can no longer think of a useful outlet for your notes, musings or intellectual reflections? Or, perhaps better, when any rereading provokes no stimulus to writing or to fur바카라사이트r philosophical reflections: merely a sentimental ��staring at 바카라사이트 past��?

Ron Iphofen is an independent research consultant. His latest book, 49 Ways to��Pull Yourself Toge바카라사이트r, was published by Stepbeach Press in 2015.