It was such a simple question, posed in 1941: `` Will this bottle see the sun?''

The answer, it turns out, is `` yes.''

That message, tucked into a pill con tainer and sealed into military base con struction 60 years ago, was just found during demolition in Rhode Island.

One of the original workmen was a Seekonk man.

The discovery is the stuff of dinner table chat, mischief penned on a whim. But it also inspires contemplation of how the messages generated by each of us may have an impact not only on the moment but on successive generations.

Whatever we say or do, as individuals or as a society, has the potential to last and last, `` messages in a bottle.''

Which do we chose to preserve for pos terity -- war or peace, rejection or accep tance, condemnation or compassion, hate or love?

What message in a bottle would you want your great-great-great-grandchil dren to inherit?

What we put out into the world, as that pill bottle proves, can survive intact for a very long time. Evidence emerges all the time.

A Norwegian who launched an ocean message in a bottle 40 years ago with schoolmates, it was just reported, has just had contact from a recipient in the Arctic Circle.

Friends on a Bermuda cruise three years ago tossed a Champagne bottle with the date and a greeting into the sea near Bermuda and just learned it was retrieved in waters off France by a man walking his dog.

Many communities in this area have buried time capsules, such as Plainville's centennial one -- the first capsule in the history of that community -- sunk into its sealed vault last December.

It contains poems and memorabilia that will reflect to an audience of 2030 some of what we are today.

Let all these be reminders that each of us conveys messages every moment of our life. They may not be inscribed on paper nor sealed in a vault.

But they are our legacy, passed along, overtly or subtly, to relatives and friends, co-workers and strangers.

In the full light of the sun, how do they look? And would we be proud or ashamed to have our names attached?