Little Wooden Box of Mystery

Uptown_4_05_Bench_BW_1945, originally uploaded by Black Java.

I was walking the shoreline down by Lake of the Isles the other day on a mission to take some photos and do some thinking. While heading back towards the path I discovered this box on a bench that faced out over the lake. The bench was old but not in a bad way, but rather in a good way as if it had weathered many storms and somehow looked natural in it surroundings. This made the old bench appealing especially with the freshly cut grass surrounding it.


Immediately I sat down on the bench next to the box, for this box had no doubt captured my attention as well. It was a wooden box, small in size with gold hinges and a black ink stamp ran half way across the top. It appeared to be a cigar box of some kind but it didn't give off the impression that cigars were inside. Cigars kept in boxes usually are expensive and who would leave those behind? Maybe it was a bomb and I was about to become the victim of a random act of violence. No, I thought, my life isn't that interesting. Maybe it was full of money or maybe it was nothing. I made the conclusion that it was probably art supplies and someone had been drawing near the lake or something.

I continued to sit next to the box wondering what could be inside. Rather than opening the box though, I opened a book "All the President's Men"€ instead. I sat there for a half hour or so reading and waiting for someone to come by to claim the box/bomb and reassure me that my life wasn't that interesting. But no one came.


In the end I decided to leave the box just as I had found it, pressed up against the side of the bench, untouched and unopened. What could be more interesting than that? Some things are best left a mystery I guess.