My Message in a Bottle for Future Generations

Hmm, what memorial gifts would you give to future generations if you had the ability?

First a disclaimer: I am not a person who is inclined to crystal ball gazing. Frankly, dealing with the challenges that life throws at me on a daily basis keeps me fully occupied. Furthermore, the topsy-turvy, what’s-coming-next times we live in make it damn hard to predict what might be waiting on the distant horizon.

But the notion of creating a time capsule came up recently in a strategic planning session where I work. It got me to thinking: What would I want future generations – let us say a century from now – to know about the time in which I live? What gifts would I bestow upon them?

Time Capsule Gift #1: One copy each of: A Tale of Two Cities, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Heart of Darkness, Dr Zhivago, Sons and Lovers, The Grapes of Wrath – my entirely subjective picks for the greatest novels of all time.

First of all, I want future generations to know that there was once such a thing as a printed book. But more importantly, my desire is that future generations have the chance to experience great literature. I fear that 100 years from now, in a world entirely driven by technology, no one will have the patience or the inherited legacy needed to write such works.

Time Capsule Gift #2: A penny. No, I’m not being ironic. My desire is that future generations will know that there was once a time when one cent could buy something. In addition, I expect that future generations will pay for everything with virtual currency. I would like them to have the sense of what it means to only be able to spend what you have in your pocket.

Time Capsule Gift #3: Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America and the Kaufman Field Guide to the Butterflies of North America. Why would I part with cherished copies of these guides?

I fear that as many as half of the species present today will have become extinct as a direct result of man’s neglect of the planet. My desire is that future generations know what a wealth of wildlife the earth once supported.

Time Capsule Gift #4: An aerial photograph of the Great Lakes: Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Superior. Why? At the rate we are consuming fresh water, there may be no natural sources of it a century from now.

Mankind will quite possibly have developed the technology to synthesize water in sufficient quantities for human needs. But it would be a shame if the majesty of the chain of noble lakes, which define this area of the country, was lost beyond remembrance.

My time capsule would be a metaphorical message in a bottle tossed into the sea of unending time. A few precious fossils, remnants of what was lost in the relentless march of progress, preserved for future generations to rediscover and ponder.

For each of us is in part the history of our forefathers. We cannot understand who we are without understanding from whence we came.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog .

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