The Ancient Greeks had many words for it. The notion that there was a box overseen by an immortal, Pandora, that contained all the evil and misery in the world is a notion that resonates in us to this day.  Pandora was custodian of that box and its contents; but our picture of how big it was and its rigid construction do not quite fit the facts of a similar container that we try to keep from leaking out horrors never thought of in Pandora’s day.

North Korea has let another “A” Bomb out of the box.  This, in itself, should not be remarkable for the Atomic Bomb club has quite a few members now.  The interesting thing is that the North Korean “test” was just that but it scared the striped pants off the diplomats all over the world who tried to persuade the dictator of North Korea not to open that box.  A question pops into my mind about the “box” which opened to allow the U.S. Great Britain, France, Israel, Russia and other countries to show their power.  None has used these fearsome bombs against human populations since the U.S. ended World War II by blowing up Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Then, too, we should look at the box.  It is sort of like a lockbox that we all trust will not be opened until the contents are needed – somewhat like the container that Al Gore talked about.  The real box that Pandora monitored was one that held in check the dreadful acts that one people could let loose upon innocents – other people and perhaps even its own people - through the sins of power enhancement and desire to control and direct the destinies of people just aching to eke out a simple life of work and saving for the future as well as wishing more for their children than they had themselves.

That box is more like an expandable duffle bag.  It has grown to enormous proportions over the millennia. Our increased knowledge has made it so.  Pandora had it sitting on her nightstand.  Another picture is that of the Hebrew portable Ark that when opened in the movie about it, let loose terrible punishment on just the Nazis in this story and not the hero and the heroine who kept their eyes closed.  We were given a picture of terrible winds with the faces of nightmare creatures that shriveled up the bad guys – in this story.

Pandora’s Box is ever expandable.  Another nation is listed as belonging to the Atomic Club.  Our scientists are working hard to make bigger and more horrible bombs and other terrors that if let loose will be like the diseases that decimate and the powers that liquidate simple lives.  Pandora is alive and well and her box is an ever expandable container that should be buried so deep and far away as to be inaccessible from the meddling hands of us humans.