This too will pass
“This too will pass” is one of those sayings that’s in the air at the moment. Indeed literally so in the case of a banner hanging from a balcony which I would see while driving through an inner suburb in those heady days when I was allowed to travel more than 5 kms.
I might have had a vague recollection that President Lincoln used the phrase to mark some dark passage of that awful civil war.
It’s a phrase for our times, a more fitting one than “you’re on mute”.
But I didn’t know until recently where the saying came from. It’s from an old fable and there are different versions, the one I came across was:
King Solomon decided to ask a servant to get him a magic ring which would make the wearer sad if happy and more attractively perhaps, happy when sad. The servant answered this practical riddle by presenting a gold ring inscribed with the words “this too shall pass”.
The phrase reminded the wise King that when times were sad there were sunnier times ahead, and in happier times there darker times around the corner. In line with ancient wisdom time and seasons pass and as a reminder about using the current times to better prepare for the next time.
What are we all doing to better prepare when this passes? How are we using this time?
