It’s only been a few days that I’ve been feeding myself a diet of “on this day” blog posts, but I’ve already found it enormously helpful.

Not for insight or research or resurfacing old ideas (although there are small touches of that), but simply for stitching together the arc of my last 20 years.

Every night for weeks now I have been watching an episode of the German TV series Dark on Netflix. Dark plays with time and relationships more than any other work of fiction I’ve encountered, and trying to keep track of it all pushes my brain to its limits (while I’m certain Catherine would never abide watching it, as she had no taste for the post-apocalyptic, it sure would help to have her around for that, as that was something she was really good at).

The dramatic fulcrum of Dark is movement back and forth through time on the same day of the year, and that is what my On This Day page (and RSS feed) provide me.

July 15 has a very particular feel to it. So do July 12 and July 13 and, I’m certain, September 17 and November 22.

Being able to wake up on July 15 and smell July 15’s smells and experience July 15’s feel, and then to read myself writing about things I was thinking and feeling on July 15s-past, draws the years closer together, and helps me understand, in a new and visceral way, how my life is proceeding.

I did not expect that, but I welcome it.