TRANSCRIPT

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. In 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 humanity’s 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’re 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. I’d much rather have these conversations as a result of questioning, and even pushback, than to have children who do as they’re told without thinking. 

It's human nature to want to know for oneself, not only to trust in the knowledge of others. It’s human nature to want to make decisions for oneself, not only to trust in the decisions of others. It’s human nature to want to see for oneself, firsthand, not mediated by others.

Today’s poem touches on these enormous issues—knowledge, curiosity, punishment—in such a compressed and artful way.

Entry
by Chet’la Sebree

I  seek   truth   in   each   prism  like   a  dictionary  definition—      
find fact in each entry,  tidy in  its articulation of knowledge. 
Search:    earliest    language.     And     even    the    algorithm 
assembles     answers       aligned     in     four-sided      figures. 
All life’s knowledge beholden to right angles and rectangles 
like the  block  typeset of a  biblical text.   There’s something 
soothing about this illusion of equity—a bedfellow I seek but
cannot   perceive   even  in   trees.   Each  branch   will  stretch
at   a    different   degree,   will    know   nothing   of   symmetry. 
Eve          the          only          one          cursed           for          eternity.   
Is      this      what      it      is      to     be      part      of     the      living?      
This being the prism.                                             This being the tree.

“Entry” by Chet’la Sebree from BLUE OPENING © 2025 Chet’la Sebree. Used by permission of Tin House, an imprint of Zando, LLC and Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency.