Messages in Bottles

Last month a German fisherman pulled the world’s oldest known message in a bottle from the Baltic Sea. It was tossed into the water back in 1913, and contained a postcard that included the writer’s home address in Berlin. Due to water damage, the rest of the message is illegible, but work will soon be under way to restore it. Read more about this here.

What is it about messages in bottles that intrigue us so? I think it is partly due to the random nature of them. We are leaving it up to fate as to whether these messages will ever be received. It also has a lot to do with history. We enjoy receiving personal messages from a bygone era.

But more than anything, I think messages in bottles speak to our desire to leave a mark upon this world. We all want to say we were here, we existed. We led unique lives and loved people and our time on earth counted for something.

Time capsules do much the same thing, but are more likely to be discovered. I’ve left a few of those buried in the ground on the property of the home I used to own. It will be interesting to see if they are ever found.

Now I’m thinking of putting a message in a bottle. What should I say? I will have to give that some serious thought. If I do it, I’ll be sure and post it here, because in a way, this blog is my personal message in a bottle. I send greetings out to the world each day and I have no idea who will read them. I also have no idea how long they will float along in cyberspace and on what shores these blog entries will wash up.

Hello, dear reader. My name is Barbara and I really do exist.

[Image credit: flickr.com]

Author: The View from a Drawbridge

I have been a bridgetender since 2001, and gives me plenty of time to think and observe the world. View all posts by The View from a Drawbridge