SILVER LININGS

If there is ever the one single phrase in the English language that epitomizes positive thinking, the "silver lining" must be it. It is a carrier of hope even when things seem to have turned desperate; it could also be the key that will open up a door or many other doors when one was shut so badly to one's face; it is serendipity in the midst of unknowable expectations; it is that prize behind "Door No. 3".

What is the origin of the phrase? And how often does the concept or the actual phenomenon of silver linings manifest themselves?

It is apparently from Milton's 1843 poem when he wrote in "Comus", "where the silver lining is the light of the moon shining from behind the cloud.

'To which Thomas Warton added the commentary: "When all succor seems to be lost, Heaven unexpectedly presents the silver lining of a sable cloud to the virtuous."

Would it be too bold to declare that the silver lining has been the essence of the universe all along? Or that the silver lining was baked into all of God's creations and that The Creator made it so that there is a silver lining where darkness dwells. 

If there is such a thing as the DNA of the universe, then the strands that hold the universal genes must be made of silver linings. This will require some explaining, before we get into silver linings that impact us personally.

Though it was there even from the true beginning of creation, that is much too farther back in time to look at it.  We may begin about two thirds through the age of the universe.  It was about four billion years ago when the universe was by then already nine billion years old.  Our sun was just another star out of several others that were created after a super nova explosion.  Any explosion seems a cause of torment but our first silver lining was the birth of our sun amidst a swirling mass of energized plasma.  Along with  our sun were  planets jockeying for their orbital positions around it.  At last they settled into separate orbits, different size marbles careening at thousands of miles per hour, turning on their axes individually along the same plane similar to an old vinyl record on a turn table.  But one planetoid about the size of Mars bumped into the third planet. The collision caused the third planet to tilt on its axis like a leaning top twirling several degrees from the vertical of the turntable's plane. The massive collection of debris from the collision began to collect into a smaller ball, while the rest of the mass ultimately fell back into the third planet.

Silver linings?  Several, actually. That smaller ball became our moon. What good could have come out of a tilted third planet - earth? It is because of the tilt that the northern and southern hemispheres have four seasons. But what about the equatorial region.  Well, it may not have the four seasons but it also means that it has an all year long growing season for vegetation. It makes possible for tropical plants and rain forests to thrive continuously, thus the vast forests are earth's ultimate carbon scrubbers, gobbling up CO2, spitting out oxygen.  The equatorial region gets much of the heat from the sun and together with its faster linear speed relative to the area closer to the poles, it is where hurricanes and typhoons originate. But, is there a silver lining with hurricanes? They are bad because we are here now to experience their ferocity.  But hurricanes and typhoons are like giant and powerful sprinklers, hosing away dead and weak vegetation and surrounding debris and general clean up of the environment. It may only sound facetious but indeed hurricanes and typhoons are part of a huge hydro cleaning crew. These powerful wind generators are solely responsible for spreading living organisms from the mainland to what used to be uninhabited and isolated islands in the middle of oceans. The moon regulates the rise and fall of ocean tides - a phenomenon that is unmatched in regulating the workings of oceans, rivers and bays.  It is clear the Creator had put in place regular and recurring mechanisms that make nature work as it does today.

Lightning was around from the moment the four forces of nature defined themselves as separate entities over 13 billion years ago. Lightning was here when our earth was just a molten ball.  Our early ancestors held them as fearful manifestations of the power of the gods. It is actually more than that.  

"With up to a billion volts of electricity, lightning burns at 50,000 degrees, making it hotter than the surface of the sun. When lightning strikes, it tears apart the bond in airborne nitrogen molecules. Those free nitrogen atoms then have the chance to combine with oxygen molecules to form a compound called nitrates. 

Once formed, the nitrates are carried down to the ground by rainfall. There, plants can absorb the powerful natural fertilizer and have any grit and grime washed away".

That lightning flash we see and the thunder clap that follows is literally the silver lining behind the dark ominous clouds.

67 million years ago, earth, teeming with life, was hit by an asteroid the size of Mt. Everest.  It was a devastating extinction of species, really bad news for the dinosaurs that were the dominant species for the last 160 million years prior.  There were survivors.  One of those were the early small mammals that barely eked out a living in the shadows of the giant reptiles.  The silver lining?  Those mammals were the precursors of our early ancestors.  But in the process did it not cost the destruction  of so many living organisms, primarily the extinction of dinosaurs?  Well, not all the dinosaurs perished.  The tiny species that survived had more tricks up their sleeves. Some of them not only survived but went on to dominate the world above them - the ocean of air.  They evolved into birds. The tiny velociraptors and today's eagles and hawks maintain the classification of raptors. They were and still are formidable predators.  There was a silver lining for dinosaurs.  Predators are regulators for a healthy eco system, balancing the population of prey animals to the vegetation that support them.

Speaking of predator and prey, there is one clear example of why silver linings are behind every natural balancing act.  The cheetah and the gazelle evolved  to be the speediest predator and prey, respectively, on the African savannah.  The slower gazelles died off as they were being caught and only the fastest could pass on their genes; meanwhile, cheetahs that could not keep up also died off and only the speediest could go on to multiply. Since then the speed race between prey and predator went on for millennia.  As a check and balance, the cheetah's success rate is a mere 37%; although it is better than 50% when going after old and/or sickly gazelles, which by the way is a silver lining because only the healthiest go on to outrun their predators and live on to propagate the species.

What about harmful microbes, like viruses and bacteria, and the plague?  Microbes, researchers have uncovered, were likely responsible for our development as a species.  Not only that they triggered many mutations that led to beneficial adaptations and our ultimate physical development, they are a daily ally, residing in our gut throughout our entire lives, performing all kinds of functions - from digestion to regulating some of the workings within our bodies, including training our immune system into a formidable force against other microscopic foreign bad actors.

The bubonic plague that ravaged Europe, killing 25% of the population, was singularly responsible for the early eradication of slavery, serfdom, while enabling land distribution from the clutches of feudal systems, the beginning of fair wages and landownership made possible away from dukes, earls and royal connections.  It was when a huge population of servants and farm workers fell to the plague that forced land barons and landowners to hire and pay workers who were in great demand.  Some landowners were forced to give up some of their lands to ordinary people who later made up the farming industry.  The plague also brought about better sanitation and what came to be the beginnings of health care systems.  There was always a silver lining when we care to look.

If we examine our lives, we will find that a series of silver linings paved much of the way to get us where we are today.  Look back, look closely. And we do need to look closely.  Often, we will likely see that so many things happened, so many people, and many circumstances in our past opened up certain paths for us.  We may not have noticed it then, or we failed to see it, but every challenge and difficulty we faced, were met because somebody may have helped, opportunities opened up, we developed the strength and resolve on our own from somewhere, sometime, but those were all silver linings.  We just didn't see them that way then.  There may have been roadblocks, detours and side trips but most may actually have led to other opportunities, different ways of looking at those we either over looked or set aside that turned to be fortuitous in the end.

Actually, it is looking out for silver linings that make possible for positive outlook and attitude when something not too good happens.  Behind all the chaos we face is the gentle musical tinkling of a silver lining unfurling.  Think of it this way.  If we look out for it, anticipate it, even hope for it, we have just eliminated the one great hindrance in life - worry.  Worry is that thick impervious backing behind the drapes that blocks our view to so many things out there behind the window where perhaps a silver lining is unfurling.

This is worth believing: God did provide the essence of silver linings to the universal DNA from the moment of creation.