When you look at a box from the outside you cannot tell what is inside of that box. Inside of a box can tell a man’s whole life story and you could miss the whole story if you never looked inside that box. The same is true for this box, and now I am going to take you on a journey of John’s life using just these passed down treasures that are in this box.
A newborn cries in the distance somewhere in the southern part of the United States, long before cars, hospitals, and essentially any modern day technologies. This was the way John’s life started out. He was born in a modest household which was beautiful and handcrafted to the specifics of John’s father Mark. Mark was a hardworking man who supported his family through thick and thin and he really loved his newborn son John. John was wrapped up in the nicest flowery blanket in the town once he was born and he was always feed the best of the best for food, chestnuts and water. Chestnuts and water given to a baby was a sign of respect and riches in their community. They even kept it in a clear glass jar to keep it from spoiling and to show off to the rest of the community that they were richer than the rest. They may have been slightly arrogant but their worldviews and ideas shortly came to an end when flooding in the town threatened to take their lives.
The once rich family had to sell all of their belongings to a local Native American tribe for a single handmade canoe that was big enough to fit the whole family in. Once they bought the canoe they headed out down the river to find dryer grounds and a safer place for a family to flourish and be happy. Mark was a local potter but he loved to make nontraditional statues. He loved African artwork.. He would make his statues to look like African artwork and sell it to the locals to help make extra money to support his family. He started making these pieces of art on the canoe because he knew there was money to be made off of this work after he was introduced to an African drummer and was shown many images and pieces of art from Africa. He based many of his statues off other peoples work but because of his attention to detail he was able to sell his work and start his family off rich in their new plot of land.
John the newborn baby, was quickly growing up. He was a hunter but he loved to fish down by the river. He would bag many fish in one afternoon out, so many but they were so small. That lead to a talk with Mark and John. Mark wanted his son to bring fresh fish be he needed to know that big fish are better to eat and the small ones need to grow to become big fish for later in the year. Mark gave John a ruler and a homemade clay plate and told him that you can only bring them back here if they are as big or bigger than the plate or as long or longer than the ruler. John listened and started bringing home large amounts of huge fish which the modest family could not consume in one day. John was forced to go down to the market with his father’s leather African wallet to sell these fresh fish so they would not go bad.
Little John did not know how the market worked but he knew when something was worth money. When John was at the market a man came up to him and claimed he had a genuine jade totem pole that he would love to trade for the fresh fish John had on him. John knew that jade was expensive and took the trade. John proudly returned home to his father to tell him the good news. Mark was upset that his son could not tell the difference between real jade and fake jade. The totem was completely worthless, except to the Native American family that it was stolen from a few days earlier. The natives were irate about losing this heirloom. They went to John’s house and demanded that it be returned. Since Mark thought it was worthless, he threw the totem away. The native then sought blood for the disrespect towards the tribe. They took Mark and John back to the tribe and performed the ceremonial beheading of thieves and shrunk both of their heads to show they are fierce warriors. That is the story of John and how his life ended because of a small mistake, and it was all learned from the items in that brown box.
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