The box we are interested in today is the one the mind is too often trapped in----usually unaware, except for the weight of the heavy lid---or the lack of "light"ness.   

According to Wikipedia:   "Box describes a variety of containers and receptacles...... A decorative box normally may be opened by raising, pulling, sliding or removing the lid, which may be hinged and/or fastened by a catch, clasp, lock, or adhesive tape. Whatever its shape or purpose or the material of which it is fashioned, it is the direct descendant of the chest, one of the most ancient articles of domestic furniture...... Objects are often placed inside boxes, for a variety of reasons."

     This sounds all too much like the mind.  This "chest" of drawers and hidden compartments that holds all the things of our lives that are often useless---much like the storage boxes in an attic---put there for a "variety of reasons."  You know the ones the rats have gotten into and smashed, eaten, or pissed on?

     Wouldn't it be nice if there were a "Black Box" that we could open up and see why we crashed so that it wouldn't happen again?

     How about a "Lock Box" that we could program to let us in at the appointed time?

     How about a "Glory Box" or "Hope Chest" so that when we got to where we were going we would have everything we need instead of all of the things we don't?  (Of course we would need a "Tool box" to open the Black Box and the Glory Box.)

     And it probably would take so much time we better bring along our "Lunch Box" as well.

     Since this is a home inspector's blog I suppose we will also need an "Electrical Box" so we can see what the hell we are doing---or in case we "blow a fuse."

     I think the real problem is, that when we try to open the box we call our mind, we think we are inside of XBox and we are loosing the game; or, we have opened "Pandora's box" and wish we had never begun.  I wonder how many people realize that among all of the "evils" present in Pandora's box there was also another evil---"Hope."  I like to think of hope as "frosting on a turd."  When something is really bad we sugar coat it---hoping that things will get better.  While hope may at times be a "necessary evil" it should in no way be mistaken as a way of life.  Sooner or later we have to deal with the way life is and move on.

     But thinking "outside" the box really doesn't have anything to do with any of these things.  It has to do with the space around whatever box it is---in spite of, or without regard for, the structure or context of the box itself.  It is letting the box contain what it contains while we dance around it causing it to transform (or be forgotten) from the outside in----instead of from the inside out. 

     It is very difficult to Box your way out of the Box.