Pandora's Box: Is Hope a Curse or a Blessing?

I was listening on one of the lectures of my younger sister and this particular question caught my attention.

Is hope a curse or a blessing?

But before we talk about that, let us have a quick recap of what happened in the story of Pandora's box.

The short version of it is that a valuable artifact was left in the care of Pandora's husband. She is a curious woman and try as she might, she could not resist the temptation of opening such a beautiful thing especially when told not to open it. She thought that a little peek will not matter, but a little peek was all it took for the contents of the box to be released. She tried to close it but there was only one thing left- hope. Some also said that the last one was actually deceptive expectation.

The original item was actually a jar instead of a box but was later mistranslated and it stuck. Today this idiom is used to refer to the origin of unexpected troubles or something that looks like a gift given to you but will actually bring you hard times. This term is actually similar in meaning with the phrase "opening a can of worms".

Curiousity killed the cat

From this myth, we can say that all our problems started Pandora's curiousity. Do you think if she had not released the contents of the box, the world will still be this full of troubles? Or, like me, do you believe that the box was designed to tempt anyone who sees it to open it?

I believe that it was the latter because in the story, it was Zeus who gave the box to Pandora's husband as a revenge to the one eho stole the fire and gave it to mankind. If he cannot stop the humans from advancing, then he sought to make it harder for them.

There was one thing left- hope

When all the emotional and physical curses came out of the box, only one thing was left behind- hope. Hope was soon released to be a source of light despite the curses ahead.

Hope is most commonly seen as a blessing in this story. A good thing in a sea of bad things. It was seen as the little white dot in a sea of black in yin-yang.

Is it really a blessing or a curse?

Hope might seem like a good thing to most. It gives us the strength to continue forward despite the hurdles we faced. It is the reason why we still fight when we are in danger, hoping that someone can save us or that a miracle can save us.

This is actually proven by an experiment that I read before. The setup is simple. Domesticated and wild rats were put in a bucket of water to see how long they will survive. 9 out of 13 domesticated rats survived for a few days while the others, along with the wild rats, only survived for a few minutes.

But how could that be? If they have the ability to do that, why did the other rats died so quickly?

Curt hypothesized that it has something to do with hope. He thought that the rats that have fought for days was saved before which is why they did not succumb to helplessness.

He put this into test by doing roughly the same experiment. Only this time, instead of watching the rats drown, he helped them when they were giving up and nursed the back to health before he put them into the buckets again. Lo and behold, these rats remained swimming for days before finally drowning. The only thing that changed was that a little help introduced in the experiment. Therefore, they know that the situation is not helpless.

What this could mean for us

Now, we know that there are a lot more difference between humans and rats than there are similarities. However, we can still learn from these kinds of experiments.

When people know that there is a chance of being saved, they persevere despite the hardships they have to endure. When we have hope, we fight and struggle. When we do not have hope, we don't fight; we give in to hopelessness.

How it relates to read.cash ams its users

In the same manner that Curt provided help for the drowning rats, read.cash provides hope for many users. The support one receives here becomes the lifeline that one desperately clings on.

Some might not need to convert the BCH given by read.cash to fiat, but there are others who had to convert BCH to survive. This is the part read.cash plays in our lives. The team behind read.cash provides us of the hope that we will be rewarded for the hard work we put in.

Did you ever come close to giving up writing articles because of feeling not good enough? What made you stay?

I will bet that it was either @TheRandomRewarder or some kind-hearted samaritan who saw you struggling and decided to give you a hand. It might not even be a big thing for them, but for you it would have been the reason why you stayed and still tried to survive.

Is hope a blessing or a curse?

We have already established that hope gives us the strength to persevere despite the currents that try to drown us. It gives us the push we need to cling on and continue to fight.

Hope makes an unbearable situation becomes bearable. It makes people be more optimistic in their situation. This is how people managed to find the courage to smile despite a 1% chance of living. This is how people believed that a 1% is still a lot more than nothing.

But is it really a blessing? Or is it also a curse in disguise? Is deceptive expectation the same kind of hope that we know?

Now imagine you were one of the rats who was saved then put back into the bucket. Your amrs must have been cramping so hard to keep yourself from drowning. The strength you have is slowly bleeding out but you continued on because you have hope that you will be saved- a hope that was not met.

Do you think the hope that gave you the strength to continue suffering is a blessing? Or would it have been kinder to succumb to the currents and rest there after a few minutes?

Let us go a little closer to home. Imagine that you are one of the struggling writers here on read.cash. You made an article about wanting to give up but received support and encouragement to continue so you did. Weeks passed by and the encouragement you received stopped coming but you still push through because you have hope after hearing other users' stories. However, this hope was never realized. It has not been repaid in kind. You are not part of the group who is a success story, but rather the silent group that are still waiting even when the situation is helpless.

You think that it would have been easier to give up. You could have found somewhere else or gotten some side hustles in writing. But then you will doubt your abilities. "Am I not good enough?", this question would run to your mind. The hope that you once had turns into a resignation to your fate. Is it a blessing or has it now become a curse?

I know that this particular scenario might have happened to some people here. Some persevered and was rewarded but some persevered too, but like the rats, they drowned waiting to be saved.

If you had been in their scenario, would you still consider hope a blessing or a curse?

For me, I consider hope as both a blessing and a curse. It is one of those things that make things harder than it should be but it also makes things bearable.

I think the real difference is the person in every situation. If one will let the hopeless feeling inside or if they can fight it while also thinking of a way out. I think hoping that someone else will do the saving makes hope a curse because more often than not, that hope is never met. However, hoping for a chance to save yourself is a blessing because it gives you the perseverance to push through because yoy know that if given the chance, you can get through the tides trying to drown you.

You can find more of my articles by clicking this link:  https://read.cash/@ZehraSky/week-1-june-2021-articles-summary-6e15cf71

Feel free to browse through it, you might find something that is to your taste.

Thank you for reading and supporting me, everyone!