"Hope"

- - hidden in Pandora’s Box

Oh drat us women and our innate curiosity! According to myth, the source of all misfortune was Pandora’s curiosity and that infamous box. From the gods she was given an ornate wooden box affixed with ornate brass accoutrements, and was told “not to open it.” Little did she know they had filled it with all things egregious.

They sent Pandora off to Epimetheus who welcomed her warmly, though Prometheus had warned him never to accept anything from Zeus. Soon fates would have it and he would come to know how true his brother’s words had been. For she, like all women, possessed a penchant of curiosity and had to know what was inside the box.

One night of quiet, she lifted the lid and out flew pestilence, sorrow and mischief too innumerable to mention. Quickly she slammed the lid shut, but it was too late. One good thing, though, the box held hope, and it remains to this day mankind’s sole comfort for misfortune.

gretchen (c)