I trust you all know the story of Pandora and Pandora's box-that-was-actually-a-jar-but-everyone-calls-it-a-box-so-we-just-roll-with-it. Pandora was created specifically to bring about the fall of mankind because Zeus was a bitter guy who didn't want the humans to overthrow him. The King of the Gods was a bit of a control freak. He made Hephaestus create her to be beautiful, but very stupid. She was 'bestowed' a fatal curiosity and she was brought to Epimetheus, Prometheus's brother who was all sad because his brother had been sentenced to eternal torment. He was given Pandora as a wife and he was thrilled. He wasn't so thrilled however when he received Zeus's second gift. A jar. Not just any jar. A jar that contained all the Spites Zeus wanted to unleash upon mankind. Hunger, Old Age, Sickness, Labor, and Treachery just to name a few.

As the days went on, Pandora grew curious about what was inside the jar. She just had to know. So despite her husband's cautions, she opened it and completed Zeus's plan of releasing them into the world. But one was inside the jar that Zeus had not noticed slipped inside. Hope. And all was not lost.

Curiosity killed the cat. The cat being all of mankind (mankind didn't actually die though), and Curiosity being Pandora. Her curiosity (and maybe a little lack of self control, but can you blame her? She was specifically made by the gods themselves to bring upon the doom of man) unleashed a jar full of Spites into the world. But why is her curiosity, her fatal flaw, viewed as such a bad thing? Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why. Everyone thought he was crazy, but now he is revered. Many people see curiosity as a wondrous concept.

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality," (Edmund Burke, philosopher and author).

"There are no foolish questions, and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions," (Charles Proteus Steinmetz, mathematician, engineer and professor).

Why was Pandora's curiosity so dangerous? Why did it unleash all these terrible things? Because that's what curiosity does. While it doesn't always unleash something bad at first, that's the direction things can move in. It's the Prometheus effect. You have a brilliant idea to help the world and you accomplish your goal of creating nuclear power plants to help industrialize energy forever, but instead of the world celebrating the new energy source, they use it to make weapons to end lives and entire nations.

Pandora's Box is now a term commonly used in news and articles and other things today. It means to unleash something that has never before been seen or similar to opening a can or worms. Things could go great, but more often than not, they go terribly wrong and a lot of good people die.

But not all is lost quite yet. While all these bad things were released from Pandora's jar, one thing had snuck in undetected.

Hope.

Hope was released out into the world and gave mankind something light in a world of darkness. A shining beacon to guide them throughout the new difficulties and hardships. The darkness and pain were real and terrifying, but so was hope. So is hope. A small thread of hope can be the most powerful thing in the world and sometimes it's all you have when you have nothing else left. But if you have it, you have everything. It is the only thing stronger than fear.

"Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light," (Albus Dumbledore, former Headmaster of Hogwarts).

Now 'Pandora's Box' is used to describe something unprecedented, like opening a can of worms. Missile attacks? Opening Pandora's Box. Scientific breakthrough? Pandora's Box. Some view a Pandora's box as something best left closed, but you can't stop curiosity and knowledge. That is inevitable.