Wonderfully written. I was moved by a father that would make the event of a time capsule personal by realizing that he would be gone, but you might very well capture the moment, again. What is the fascination about time capsules? Is it the innate desire or immortality, if only by some small triumph over the march of time? Is it the desire to speak into future and say, “We yet live?”

As a young military man (I’m apparently the same age as you) I was once stationed in a rural area with nary a thing to entertain young stallions. So I started learning more about the culture and small towns. The old cemetaries are the best place to start. Before the sanitization of death, people left messages on their grave stones. There were a series of such that tried to pass on wisdom, such as “Remember Man as you go by, As you are now so once was I, As I am now so you shall be, Prepare yourself to follow me.” At the age of 20, those sent a strange chill up my spine.

And that is the message that came back to me as I read your story. From the little I can glean about your enthusiastic father, I doubt he was intending that message. I would rather guess he was wanting for you a moment of good memories and a shared excitement of the event. Perhaps those early grave inscriptions tainted me.

I had no religious beliefs when I was 20, being a convinced atheist. If I gleaned any wisdom, it was the helpful advice to mark the shortness of human life and live accordingly. Now, as I live with a firm belief in Jesus Christ, I wonder if those in the grave who left such words were also Christians, telling me that I should not die as an unbeliever. I cannot know their intent, of course.

Thank you for penning this wonderful account of your experience. I sighed when you described water pouring out of the unearthed car! I so wanted it to be in great condition and shout out, “We can triumph over time!” Not so, after all, but I can rejoice in a father and daughter once again connected.