Somebody (not Someone) recently suggested I write my autobiography. I did not think this a good idea. I recall a rule only those who are household names ought to write autobiographies. The few hobbit-holes in which my name is spoken with any regularity live the folks wondering when their next ritalin or xanax prescription is due. Besides, isn’t my blog an ersatz autobiography?

After contemplation I see the sense of writing one’s own life if only for the simple reason it is likely to be more accurate. I dread some medical student or blogger-historian writing about me and getting it all wrong. On the few occasions I have been interviewed I later went over the text with a diving rod only to find almost nothing at all what I was.(1)

I suppose if I were to write such a ego-tome I would try to emulate the autobiography of C.G.Jung.  This isn’t about style or in homage. The man rambles; he was absolutely incoherent (both in the original German and in the English translations). What I like about it is he wrote about the psychological milestones in his life rather than a concrete timeline starting with when I was born. Indeed, in one of the later chapters while describing a numinous dream that changed his theory he makes a desultory reference to a wife of several years and this is the first we have heard of him actually being married. I recall he mentions some but not all of his children and only a few times and only in passing.  He tactfully doesn’t mention all his libertine ways with the women, including his long time live-in mistress.(2)

In preparation I should read some autobiographies to see how it is done. I admit after a day’s work of hearing about people’s lives the last thing I want to do is read self-disclosure and growth (3).  I think I will wait a few decades before I make a go at it. I am suspect of autobiographies written by people under 70, unless they are dead.

Perhaps I can be lazy and just publish Spo-Reflections in book form. I am told no one buys ‘real books’ nowadays anymore but they are read them on Kindle devices. In that case they can just simply go to www.sporeflections.wordpress.com and read it. It just as incoherent as “Memories, Dreams, Reflections” and there are lovely photos of shirts.

(1) One blandishment was rather sweet but it was still not accurate.

(2) This is a mistake on his part, for it has been expanded on by others – frequently.

(3) Photos help.