Season 3 Podcast 182 Pandora's box, A Story of Hope

Pandora’s Box, A Story of HopeThe following story of Hope was written by my daughter Paula Hiatt and read by Linda. Let me refer you to her Blog Post at paulahiatt.com.  Some background to the story may be helpful. One dreadful evening, Paula came into my den, shut the door and said, ‘Dad I have been diagnosed with cancer.’ Her mother, my first wife, died of cancer in 2000. She was 55 years old. She died three weeks to the day of her diagnosis. She had only one chemotherapy treatment. During Paula’s long years of cancer treatment, which included extensive chemotherapy, radiation, and serious surgeries, her husband announced that he was leaving her. Afterword’s she said to me that the divorce was ten thousand times worse than the cancer.  The following, written during the trial of her faith, is an excerpt taken from the Blog of Paula Hiatt.As a child I listened to the story of Pandora’s Box with a mix of horror and childish self-righteousness. Naturally, I could never be guilty of opening a box like that. But now I look at Pandora with different eyes. It’s an Adam and Eve story, of course. In the myth Pandora is considered the first woman on earth. She is given a jar or box, told it is filled with gifts, and warned never open it for any reason. She’s a bit of a meme now, thousands of years later, because her curiosity does get the better of her, and she lifts the forbidden lid, unleashing illness, misery, and all kinds of evil on an unsuspecting world. She smacked the lid back down, but it was too late. Lots of people still haven’t forgiven her for this. If only she had contained it, we would not have had to suffer so! If only the virus had stayed in the box where it belonged, if only I hadn’t gotten cancer at the same time our family imploded, if only Porter had been able to sing “Lily’s Eyes” in the Secret Garden! It’s not fair! It’s not fair!I think we’ve missed the point. In Greek “Pandora” means “one who bears all gifts,” and her magic box still contains one more, the gift of Hope. The myth tells us that Pandora was intentionally designed by the gods to be curious, and read one way she is a punishment to humankind, a warning for all stupid enough to disobey. But if that is true, why name her Pandora? It makes no sense.What if “curious” is another word for “brilliant?” What if Pandora’s true genius was recognizing that no human can gain strength who had not first faced weakness. But why would such a clever woman shut the box on Hope, trapping it inside? Surely suffering people need something to hold onto. But here again she is maligned by those who choose to ignore the great paradox of her story. Hope cannot be trapped, nor can it fly out.When Evil flew streaking from the box, eager to impose its hateful will on any possible victim, Hope lingered in the bottom of the box because it was the only gift that cannot be imposed on anyone. We are required to seek it out, individually reaching our hands into Pandora’s infinite and enchanted box to capture our own personal version, tailor-made for our specific circumstances. The trouble is, it’s easier to blame someone else than to reach into the box for ourselves.A very short time ago, Paula, who had some time earlier been declared cancer free, announced that she had just taken the last pill of the last treatment. Let me encourage you to read her blog at paulahiatt.com.