Thursday, November 19, 2009

The Box

A few months ago I was winding up my job at a pharmacy in a small town. One of the things I ended up doing was tidying up the basement of the building. It was a job that could be considered menial, but I actually enjoyed digging around and finding some old, interesting things amongst all the clutter.

One day I found a plain cardboard box. I brushed the dust off and opened it, and inside were a bunch of old artifacts; papers, maps, and slides from trips to Europe and Asia. There was an envelope from the Dept. of the Army, a gospel of John, and a picture that said "The Ship I Sailed On." I opened the gospel of John, and inside a printer's note advised: "Read this book fifty times." I bet they don't print that instruction anymore, I mused.

I knew that I needed to return this box to its owner, one of the original pharmacists who built the store there. So I called him on the phone and he came to pick it up a couple of days later.

"It's a treasure," he said.

He recalled some of the memories of the things inside the box: working with Norwegian hospitals in Korea, taking trips when he was young. He talked about days gone by; even about his mother's death, and began to tear up. He thanked me for calling him, then took the box home to continue exploring the things inside.

It made me think, What's inside my Box? What kinds of things will I look back on when I'm old?