- Karl von Loewe
- Apr 18, 2022
- 1 min read
Updated: May 9, 2022
At least a decade ago Pamela A. Harazim published a poem entitled “Strangers in the Box.” I reproduce it here:
Come, look with me inside this drawer, In this box I've often seen, At the pictures, black and white, Faces proud, still, serene.
I wish I knew the people, These strangers in the box, Their names and all their memories Are lost among my socks.
I wonder what their lives were like, How did they spend their days? What about their special times? I'll never know their ways.
If only someone had taken time To tell who, what, where, or when, These faces of my heritage Would come to life again.
Could this become the fate Of the pictures we take today? The faces and the memories Someday to be passed away?
Make time to save your stories, Seize the opportunity when it knocks, Or someday you and yours could be The strangers in the box.
Many of us have boxes full of photos of people we don’t recognize. One of mine is pictured here. But worse, we have saved digital images to our phones and computers, where they can be lost in one crash. Identify and save them while you can to illustrate the family story you create for the next generation.
This really hit home because so many of us have our own “shoebox,” whether it’s old family photos, forgotten files, or memories we keep meaning to sort through. I loved how your post gently reminds us that stories disappear when we don’t take time to name, preserve, and share them. It honestly made me think about how even our laptops and folders can become modern shoeboxes full of meaning but no context. As a student, it also reminded me how easy it is to collect notes, drafts, and even research ideas—like Accounting Dissertation Topics—without ever organizing the story behind them. Years later, they can feel just as mysterious as unlabeled photographs. Such a simple but powerful message: preserving memories is…
I liked how you used the shoebox idea to talk about the memories and feelings we hide away, not just old photos or letters. It reminded me of a rough semester when my own stress box felt too full and I even had someone take my online exam for me because I was scared of failing. Your post makes me think I should sort through those memories and choices instead of just closing the lid.
Great project Karl. I have digitized all my shoeboxes and labeled the ones I could identify, however, the shoeboxes full of faded photos are probably more likely to be passed down in my family than all those digital copies in my computer or in the cloud.