An Unexpected Gift

These last few weeks have been draining for us all. The news seems to bring only heartache and turmoil. Incomprehensibly, there were even more mass shootings in the U.S., with the attacks in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas, bringing the total to 213 for the year so far. In Ukraine, war rages on and the casualty counts continue to grow. And the political rancor here in the United States persists at unprecedented levels. I hate to admit it but there were times this past week when hopelessness began to creep up on me.

And then, one morning last week, I arrived at my office to find a small box on my desk. It was smartly wrapped with a handwritten tag letting me know that it was from one of our amazing docents here at Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center.

Inside was a small glass box from a well-known name in jewelry and collectables. But this gift was less about the lovely little gold and green box and more about what was within the box. Neatly penned on a small slip of paper was one simple word – Hope.

She had given me hope in a box.

In Ovid’s retelling of the classic Greek story of Pandora’s box, we know that Pandora opens a box Epimetheus had in his possession for safe keeping. Sadly, the box contained all of the world’s evils and ills, and in taking the lid off the box, Pandora effectively released them into the world. But, at the last second, she was able to put the lid back on the box just in time to prevent hope from escaping too. It is not that she trapped hope in the box; rather, she preserved it and kept it from being eaten up by the massive evils of the world.

I immediately sent the giver an email to say thank you and by the end of our exchange, I had been reminded that each of us keeps our hope in our own personal box. For some, their hope, which is the expectation of something good that is to come, is found in their faith. For others, it is a secular belief in humanity or nature. It could be prompted by something as basic as seeing flowers on your morning walk. No matter how complex or simple, it is personal and unique to each of us.

For me, it turns out that I just needed to be reminded that I find my hope in my day-to-day life. When I unlock the doors each morning at this 110-year-old synagogue, my hope comes from being reminded of those who fought to keep this historic and sacred place from being razed and worked so hard to bring it back to life. Later, I am filled with hope again as I open the mail, a seemingly innocuous task, and I find a donation from a woman in Portland, Oregon, who toured last month with her daughter. And there is infinite hope in watching a Holocaust Survivor share their story with a group of 60 middle schoolers and catching the eye of that one student who you know has been profoundly impacted by what they heard that day.

So, today, as the news cycle marches on and we continue to see the world not as its best self, I invite you to look around for your own hope in a box. I am confident that when you truly take a moment to look, you will find it in so many big and small ways!

— Lori Shepherd