For Generations To Come

 

     In the early years of the 20th century there was a ritual performed by organizations and businesses and school kids young and older that strangely enough benefited people of the future in an informative way, it was the collection of things from the present placed in a capsule then buried or entombed in building foundations and or under monuments. They were called "Time capsules".

     I don't know how they got started, maybe the idea came from the Egyptians who buried their kings in elaborate tombs decorated with hieroglyphic writings of their reins and filled with various items the king would require in his afterlife, often even their favorite wife. Or maybe this ritual came about because there was no TV,cell phones, video games and computers to occupy the youth so somebody said - I know lets fill a mason jar with stuff and bury it so somebody can dig it up later. However it came about burying time capsules was quite popular in the early century.

     There was no regulated size to the capsule nor any specific items that had to be placed inside it. Some school kids buried toys, letters, poems, all sorts of childish things and the capsule would be opened years later when they were seniors. Civic organizations placed specific things to show the future of a life long forgotten by the time it was opened while governments went further with documents and items of importance to the next generations and news items of events of the day. Whatever was placed in the capsules was an indication of a society from the past, not knowing what the future would hold so generations to come would have insight into the past.

     The capsule location was a known fact as was the date it was to be opened which ranged anywhere from a few years to a few decades. One time capsule of sorts was created to show other worlds about life on earth in various languages, recordings and a form of modern hieroglyphics then placed a board a rocket ship and fired into space. Voyager 1 was launched September 5, 1977 to explore the outer reaches of our solar system, at this writing it is still going and in communication with earth but it has left our solar system and sailed into the next. Maybe someday we will know if we are alone or not.

     Back here on earth. I recently heard about a time capsule here in Georgia that caused me to write this story. Olgelthorpe University in Atlanta put together a time capsule in 1940, it is called the Crypt of Civilization that contains thousands of items, including a Lincoln Log set. The thing that sets this capsule apart from all others is the opening date of 8113 some 6000 years into the future. To me it is an optimistic view of the future of this world, hopefully someone will be around for the opening, hopefully not the Eloi and Morlocks of HG Wells imagination.