I'm Maggie Smith, and this is The Slowdown.

Literature is full of characters who are punished for their curiosity.

The biblical story of Eve comes to mind, of course.

And Abrahamic religions, Eve was the first woman God created.

She was warned by God not to eat from the tree of knowledge,

but then, tempted by a serpent, she did, and she shared the fruit with Adam. As the story goes,

because of that transgression, they were expelled from paradise. Long story short,

a woman's curiosity led to humanities fall from grace. There's also the Greek myth of Pandora,

which is parallel in many ways.

Pandora, the first woman created by the gods, was given a jar by Zeus.

She was warned not to open it.

I'm guessing you can see where this is going.

Pandora's curiosity got the best of her, so she opened it, releasing all of the evils of the world,

disease, sorrow, and death.

This story is where we get the idiom to open a Pandora's box, meaning to do or start something

that will cause many unforeseen problems. The fact that both of these origin stories begin

with curious women, women who ignored warnings and instructions,

and who wanted to know, isn't lost on me. The word scapegoat comes to mind. We are all curious.

We all want to know more. And frankly, if someone tells you don't open that box,

what do you want to do? You want to look in the box. That's human nature 101.

As a parent, I want to value curiosity over compliance, even when it's messy. My children sometimes talk back, but respectfully. They question authority. Again, respectfully. I want them to ask, why are these the rules, and why do we have to do things this way?

This gives us a chance to have real, meaningful conversations about their values and about their decision-making.

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