Seven Ps in a Pod

You know, Ian asked me to do a meme. I don't think Ian likes me very much. Well, I am supposed to write about seven "p" words. The first thing that came to mind was the number seven. Since it is a meme, I figured seven was chosen to represent the number of gateways traversed by Inanna during her descent into the underworld. Okay.

Pandora's Jar. When I was in high school, I learned about Pandora's Box. Yeah, thanks Greeks, blaming the evils of the world on a woman's womb. Nice. But what I remember most is in college, learning that Erasmus of Rotterdam (I have always loved the word "Rotterdam") mistranslated Hesiod's poem – substituting box for jar.

Since that time, I no longer trusted the public educational system. Something mistranslated centuries ago endures to this day. Oh, and the words for jar (in Greek) and box (in Latin) both start with P. Newspapers bury corrections on page 16, and apparently historians bury mistakes completely.

Only Hope was left within her unbreakable house,
she remained under the lip of the jar, and did not
fly away. Before [she could], Pandora replaced the
lid of the jar. This was the will of aegis-bearing
Zeus the Cloudgatherer.

Peccadillo. Yeah, I am Catholic, and since peccadillo can be translated into "little sin," many of you might have guessed I would chose this word. I love the way the word sounds, and I love the fact that everybody I know has these little faults. I think of them as warts, though I don't have any warts. But I have a peck of peccadillos.

Preppy. When I was in high school, preppy was in. I wore some preppy clothes, and looking back on things, I wish I had been born in a different age. I would have loved to be a teenager in the 50s, but then I would be seventy or seventy-five by now. Okay, I can't do the math right now. Sock hops and puddle skirts, really good music, and perceived innocence. Izod® shirts were part of my history.

Perfection. Some people strive for perfection. I sometimes wonder if perfection is the enemy of progress. I see people working on projects, planning and meeting, working towards the perfect plan. But then they don't do anything because of this or that. If their sites were set on good instead of great (or perfect), maybe more people would succeed. I am not a fan of perfection.

Pooh Bear. When I was growing up, my parents read a lot of AA Milne to me. I loved listening to the adventures of Pooh, Christopher Robin, Piglet and the whole gang of the Hundred Acre Wood. I did not have a favorite, but since the headliner was Pooh, I am using his P for my meme. Pooh was a philosopher (another P word), and I love his outlook on life. I love his voice. I love his perspective. He makes me feel comfortable.

Privacy. Privacy was not really an issue when I was growing up. I look around, and I think it is a big issue now. You can't go to a store without people asking for your phone number when you pay cash for an item. I once had someone say that I could not buy something for cash if I did not provide them with a phone number. And I was paying cash. I left the store. On the way out, the cashier said, "You could use a fake phone number."

I turned to say, "That is not the point."

Promise. I keep promises. I don't make many of them, but I keep them when I make them. I think that is important. It is an important P word.