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Here’s how I make each day count: I keep a diary

JL;DR SUMMARY Andrew Silow-Carroll reflects on his ritual of maintaining a five-year diary since 2011, capturing both the mundane and significant events of his life. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

FamilyJewish TraditionReflectionMemoryDaily LifePersonal HistoryDiaryConsistencyFive Year DiaryMeaning Making

Places mentioned

Mahwah, New Jersey, United States
"Later that day we went on a two-hour hike in the woods near Mahwah, New Jersey."
New York, United States
"Florence Wolfson Howitt, who kept such a diary from 1929 through 1934, when she was a privileged Jewish teenager growing up on the Upper West Side."
Florida, United States
"Koppel found Howitt still living in Florida; her story about a slice of recovered personal history and the passage of time became a book, The Red Diary, published in 2008."

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Cairo Item ID 71776
Cairo Source ID 42
Retrieved 2026-01-02 18:00:20 UTC
Curated 2026-01-02 19:00:49 UTC