"This too shall pass"

The 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln loved a good story, and he loved to pass on his favorite stories even more than hearing them.  Prior to becoming President, he delivered a speech at the 1859 Wisconsin State Fair in which he told the following story:

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations.  They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away."  How much it expresses!  How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!

It's difficult to say, but Lincoln probably first heard the story from the 19th century English poet Edward Fitzgerald's story "Solomon's Seal" which he based on an ancient Persian fable.  Fitzgerald's version involves the wise King Solomon, who one day asks his advisor to find him a magic ring.  King Solomon describes the ring as follows: "If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy."  Fitzgerald goes on to say that King Solomon knew that such a ring did not exist, he merely wanted to humble his advisor.  The advisor unsuccessfully searches far and wide for the magic ring, and on the last day of his search (King Solomon gave him six months to find the ring), he passes by a merchant in the market who had begun to set out his day's wares on a shabby carpet.

He asks the merchant if he has such a ring that "makes the happy wearer forget his joy and the broken-hearted wearer forget his sorrows."  The merchant smiles and brings out a plain gold ring (seal) that contains an inscription.  King Solomon's advisor reads the inscription and realizes he has finally found the ring that he was searching for!  He goes back to King Solomon and hands him the ring.  The inscription read, "This too shall pass," and at that moment, King Solomon realizes that all his wisdom, wealth, and power - even his very life - were all but fleeting things.

As I look back at some of my posts at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic more than 3 years ago (see for example "In like a lion, out like a lamb" and "These are the times that try men's souls..." and "...all of this has happened before"), I am struck by how much we really didn't know about what was going to happen in our world.  We were worried about surviving (literally) the pandemic, and the last thing that was on any of our minds was what the other side of the pandemic would look like in the future.  Now that the World Health Organization has officially declared an end to the COVID-19 public health emergency (and even though they have not called an end to the pandemic), things are starting to feel a little closer to normal again.  And as King Solomon realized, all things eventually pass, including pandemics.

I didn't want this post to just be about the COVID-19 pandemic.  What I think is the important lesson from this story is exactly this - we should always remember that whether we are struggling with challenges and defeat or celebrating fortune and victory, the old adage that "this too shall pass" applies universally.  I'm sure that the legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden never thought that his team's streak of 88 consecutive wins would last forever, nor do I think that every Chicago Cubs fan (this fan included) would believe that the team's 108 years of failing to win a World Series would keep going on either.  The ancient Stoics had a phrase that perfectly describes my point - Memento Mori (Latin for "Remember that you have to die").  

Marcus Aurelius wrote, "Keep in mind how fast things pass by and are gone - those that are now, and those to come" and further admonishes us to remember "You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think."  Remember the past, but do not dwell on it.  Live your life today to the fullest.  And most importantly of all, remember that "all things do pass", even us.