Four little words are all you need

When I was running an addictions rehab one of my counselors had an effective homily he used to throw at clients who were going through the agonies of withdrawal hell – and if you haven’t seen such a human phenomenon, believe me, it’s not a pretty sight.

The victim is suffering physically, emotionally, and spiritually and his life has become the stuff of his worst nightmares. When it would seem like the poor bastard was reaching a detox point where he believed he could not carry on any longer, my counselor would offer this thought. Amazingly, or maybe not-so-amazingly, it worked better than you might think.

“Just remember four little words,” Dave would say to the guy writhing on the bed. “Those four words are: This too shall pass.”

Smart guys paid heed to the wisdom of the statement, and those who entered a successful recovery, rarely forgot them.

According to legend the tale of the four words originated in the Middle East in days of yore. It seems that the potentate, Sheikh Yerbouti (sorry, stole the apocryphal name from Frank Zappa, because I have no idea what the man’s name was) asked his assorted palace wiseguys to research a treatise that would teach his wayward and wastrel sons all they needed to survive in the world. He wanted wisdom in a nutshell. After years of pondering scriptures and scrolls and other enlightened works, the wise men eventually pared it all down. The potentate was well-pleased with their efforts and rewarded them with harems of their own – albeit smaller, economy sized harems when compared with his own.

But, to be seriously philosophical for a moment, those four words follow the KISS criterion (Keep It Simple, Stupid) and throw in a bit of Occam’s Razor just in case all contingencies haven’t been seen to.

What else, in truth, do any of us need to know? Life is a transitory business. This is how it is, and no matter what ghastliness is afoot, or what goodness might be abounding, it will all go away with the passage of time. We live in wacky and scary times, but we’ve always lived in wacky and scary times, if you think about it, and we likely always will.

So, we can offer these words to poor Paris Hilton, for example: “This too, my dear, shall pass. Don’t fret about the fried bologna or who you might be forced to ‘service’ at shower time tomorrow. Eventually you will be back at the mansion, wherein you can discard the orange jumpsuit and cuddle up with your little dogs (which were probably hoping for a longer sentence, possibly life, at least ‘their’ lifespans, anything to keep out of that &*%$# handbag) and all will pass like a bad dream.

To be serious for a moment, we have all faced adversity in our lives. Sometimes we have had to deal with excruciating pain. Loved ones have died, cherished love affairs and marriages have gone south, some nights have been long and lonely, illness has encroached on our peace and happiness or the peace and happiness of those we love, and we can end up being filled with despair. In that, there is balm in the knowledge, it will pass. The bad times will end.

So, alas, will the good ones. Nothing goes on forever, and all that we have and know will change. Life is transitory. This is neither good nor bad. It is what it is.

As it says in Ecclesiastes, there is “a season” for everything that must be. The Byrds had a pretty decent song about it, too.

In complete sincerity, however, I have used the four words to get me through some bad patches in my own life. They work.