August Prompt 005: Memory Box/ Creative Muses

005. You are allowed to place three items from your lifetime into a box that will be opened in fifty years. What do you put in, and why?

I've heard of these boxes before, how towns and families would fill them with things meant to remind others of who they were, or what they stood for, only to then bury or seal them away in the cornerstone of a building for another generation to find. It's hard for me to know even know what I would include, only because I've never really been someone who has much, and what there is, I'm not sure I'm ready to part with. As I think about it more though I realize there are things I have that are much more important then the physical reminders I'd first thought they must mean.

With that in mind, I would have to say the first item I would include would be a copy of my photo of Danijela and Jasna, and attached to it would be my memories on the siege of Vukovar. As young and happy as my wife and daughter are in that photo, I would want people to know that their lives were cut short. I would want people to know that they died that day with baby Marko, and the devastation was so great that all I could salvage of our lives together was this one small photograph. I would want people to know, that for far too many, that even that was more than they were left with when the shelling and killing was done.

For my next additions I would include vials of the vaccines and antibiotics, and a mosquito net, things that are so desperately needed in the Congo, along with a photograph of Chance and her mother. Once again I would have to include a letter of explanation, and here I would have to talk about my shock at finding out that medicines that cost less than lunch in a fast food restaurant are often standing between a child living or dying in the Congo, and violence is often seen as a fact of life, with rape a far too common reality for even the youngest girls.

Finally, I think I'd include a copy's of Joe's Birth Certificate, Abby and my Wedding Certificate, and our wedding photo. The reason for this is to show that no matter how grim life may seem, you can't give up, there is a chance for a new life, you just have to believe, and one day it will find you. For a long time I didn't want to believe it was possible, I even had myself convinced I was being punished for things I had done in my life. But, I was wrong, and once I realized that, once I accepted that I was allowed to make mistakes and the world wouldn't fall apart because of them. I was allowed to be happy again, and I am.