This Too Shall Pass
This Too Shall Pass is an adage of Persian origin that reflects on the impermanence and temporary nature of the human condition. Nothing endures, neither good nor evil. The general sentiment is found in Wisdom Literature across history and all cultures but this specific phrasing is attributed to the writings of medieval Sufi poets. It is not from the Bible.
Our Western familiarity with this saying comes primarily from a 19th-century retelling of the following Persian fable by the English poet Edward FitzGerald (1809-1883).
SOLOMON’S SEAL
The Sultan asked Solomon for a Signet motto, that
should hold good for Adversity or Prosperity. Solomon
gave him, "THIS ALSO SHALL PASS AWAY."
Abraham Lincoln used Solomon’s Seal in a speech before he became the sixteenth President of the United States.
Why am I thinking about this maxim now?
As a physician, psychiatrist, sister of a disabled, schizophrenic brother, and humanitarian, I am heartsick that the Republicans passed into law their big, horrifyingly ugly bill. This bill enriches the already obesely, obscenely rich while slashing Medicaid and social supports desperately needed by our most vulnerable citizens. (By the way, did you know that 30% of Medicare is funded with Medicaid dollars?)
The cruelty, inhumanity, shameless greed, and murderousness of this bill makes me ill. Along with all the other destructive changes this administration and corrupted Supreme Court have already initiated—the criminalization of reproductive health care, the dismantling of the NOAA, the dismantling of the CDC research and vaccine teams, ICE and the lawless deportation of innocent people without due process, etc., etc., etc.— people will die by the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands. Almost a million people died during the COVID pandemic during Trump’s first term, and we had Fauci then. There are no guardrails now. It’s easy to fall into a deep despair and lose all hope.
But now, more than ever, it’s not an option to do nothing.
I remind myself that this administration too—like the Confederates, like the Nazis—shall pass, but only if we the people unite and vigorously resist. I take heart remembering that twelve million people participated nationwide in the June 14th No Kings protests, meeting the 3.5% threshold necessary for positive change to occur.
The 3.5% rule is a political science concept stating that when 3.5% of the population of a country protest non-violently against an authoritarian government, that government is likely to fall from power. The rule was formulated by Erica Chenoweth in 2013. “Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts—and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.”
Let’s, in our individual ways, contribute to keeping up that 3.5 % threshold. Let’s, as Ghandi said, be the change we want to see in the world. Let’s, as writers and communicators, go forth and speak the light.
"There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language." Toni Morrison