Pandora's Box Retold

It has been said that we need to change the stories that we tell ourselves in order to be able to transform who we are. The story of Pandora's box may be one such story. As Wikipedia explains, "Pandora had been given a large jar and instruction by Zeus to keep it closed, but she had also been given the gift of curiosity, and ultimately opened it. When she opened it, all of the evils, ills, diseases, and burdensome labor that mankind had not known previously, escaped from the jar, but it is said, that at the very bottom of her box, there lay hope. There is no reason to think Pandora acted out of malice in opening the jar, for she was exercising her curiosity, and when she saw what was let out of it, she quickly closed it."

This beautiful animation by Gobelins retells the story very differently. While curiosity may be the reason why The Evil comes into the world, it is also fearless curiosity that becomes key to outwitting The Evil and to personal growth (in a very literal sense).



While the demon in the video insists on enacting patterns of domination and victimization (another old story) - the child refuses to play according to this script. She even has the courage to dive right into the mysterious dark box, from which she re-emerges as a grown being.

When I came across this video I had just finished reading Soulcraft by Bill Plotkin. Bill Plotkin believes that by courageously facing the underworld of the soul, we can find our true place in the world and our authentic self. He describes various “soulcraft skills”, such as dream work, wandering in nature or vision quests, which help to step out of the ordinary world with its usual scripts, and into a process of self-discovery. A process that is, by necessity, a terrifying experience for the ego, which would prefer safety and comfort to transcendence any time.

So what do we do with Pandora's Box? Do we continue to complain about "The Evil", be scared by it, try to control or fight it. Or do we have the courage to accept and face it, study it without looking for blame, - and be changed by this process.

(I have commented on "Pandore's box" also at Freshcreation.com)

Looking for the Story Beneath

Storytelling is one of the big re-discoveries in communication. Books like "Made to Stick" tell that if you want the world to know your message you have to tell it in an accessible story, not with statistics and facts. Brain research supports this: We are more likely to remember content that we learned as part of a story (preferrably an emotional story), rather than from a list of "things to remember". In "The Meme Machine", Susan Blackmore even goes so far to suggest that our brains are so big because we needed the brain power to be better story tellers. Good story tellers increased their chances of survival.

In this context, it is easy to understand that there can be no fundamental change unless we start changing our stories.

Identifying the underlying story in the news, in our own actions is the first step in that direction - the ability to see the cultural meme, the archetypes and symbols is also what, in my view, empowers anyone a) to become a good trend watcher and b) to recognize that we can choose which stories we tell, which memes we spread.


The short documentary by below shows personal stories of people who have been hit hard by the financial crisis. People who realized that they have the choice to either remain in shock and feel victimized, or give their personal life story a new positive turn. Very inspiring!



(see related post "How to Cook Up the Future)