Welcome to your week’s newest and most stimulating escape from the real world.
One Christmas, in the earlier part of this century, my grandparents found themselves in a familiar holiday bind when they had a gift without a box to store it. Scrambling their home on the precipice of the holiday, they happened across an old blueberry box.
Where did this come from?
It didn’t matter. They had their gifting vehicle. And in the same moment, they captured lightning in a bottle.
Like most family traditions (and oddly some of the most memorable moments of our lives), they come upon us without trying. In this case, the blueberry box was a hit with our family. The box itself became one of the most memorable pieces of our family’s holiday infrastructure. Every year, one person would receive the blueberry box. The contents of the box itself would vary, but one thing remained constant: the gift was not just a gift. Specifically, it was something slightly elevated from the rest of the gifts (the year I got it, I got a basketball hoop, no big deal). Moreover, whoever received the gift that year had typically earned the blueberry box well in advance.
My grandparents would selectively designate someone different for the blueberry box each year. The box would often times be given to someone who had a significant year in some regard. A marriage, a graduation, a break up…
Point being, the gift was not just a gift. It was a symbol for recognition of all kinds, good and bad. Congratulations. We’re sorry. We’re proud of you. It carried with it a certain level of meaning that is reserved for the most select moments of your life. Because when you got the blueberry box, you earned it.
My hope is this journal you’re now a part of can reimagine their vision and provide an injection of the same magnetism the blueberry box transmitted every Christmas. You don’t know what you’re getting, it won’t be the same, but hopefully it will make you feel something.
Every Thursday morning. Short stories in your inbox designed to give you a brief reprieve from reality and into a world of expansive imagination.
