Who Said And This Too Shall Pass

Ever have one of those days? You know the kind. The ones where your toast lands butter-side down, you can't find your keys, and then, to top it all off, your favorite show gets cancelled. Ugh. It's enough to make you want to pull the covers over your head and declare it a lost cause. But then, a little whisper in the back of your mind, or maybe it's just the sheer exhaustion, reminds you of a phrase we've all heard a million times: "This too shall pass."

It’s like a tiny, comforting mantra, right? A little reassurance that even the most epic of downer moments won't last forever. But have you ever stopped to wonder, with all the seriousness of trying to assemble IKEA furniture without the instructions, who actually came up with this gem? Who is the mastermind behind this universal balm for all our woes?

Well, buckle up, buttercups, because here’s where things get a little… shall we say, fuzzy. The truth is, the exact origin of "this too shall pass" is a bit of a mystery novel where all the clues are smudged. It’s like trying to remember where you put that one specific Tupperware lid. It’s around somewhere, but pinpointing its exact birth is tricky business.

Many fingers, or rather, many ancient scrolls and dusty books, point towards a tale involving a wise king and a magical ring. The story goes that a king, who was apparently having a bit of a rough patch (relatable, am I right?), asked his wise men for something that would make him happy when he was sad, and sad when he was happy. Because, you know, balance is everything. They presented him with a ring, inscribed with the words "This too shall pass."

Now, this is a lovely story. It’s got royalty, wisdom, and a very practical piece of jewelry. But is it the definitive answer? My highly unscientific polling of my cat and several houseplants suggests a resounding "maybe." It's a good story, and it’s certainly the most popular explanation. It’s the Wikipedia entry that everyone agrees on, even if the original source is a bit shadowy.

However, my incredibly unofficial, and let's be honest, slightly rebellious, opinion is that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't one single person. Maybe it was more like a collective sigh of humanity. Think about it. Throughout history, people have faced floods, famines, plagues, and the invention of socks that always go missing in the laundry. Surely, in moments of absolute despair, someone, somewhere, let out a weary breath and thought, "Well, this can't last forever, can it?"

And then that thought, like a particularly persistent earworm, just… spread. It hopped from campfire to marketplace, from whispered secrets to grand pronouncements. It became the universal shrug of the ancient world. It’s the intellectual equivalent of a comforting pat on the back. You can almost picture cavemen grunting it to each other after a particularly bad sabre-toothed tiger encounter. "Grrr. Big cat. This too shall pass."

So, while the tale of the king and the ring is a charming one, and I'm all for attributing it to someone with a crown, I have this sneaking suspicion that the phrase is much older and more democratically distributed. It’s a piece of wisdom that bubbled up from the shared human experience. It’s a testament to our resilience, our ability to endure, and our fundamental understanding that life is a rollercoaster, not a particularly bumpy bus ride.

And frankly, I find that rather comforting. It means we don't need a special decoder ring or a secret handshake to access this nugget of truth. It’s just… there. Available to all of us, whenever we’re stuck in the mud or soaring a little too high. It's the ultimate, low-maintenance piece of advice. No batteries required, no software updates needed.

So the next time your computer decides to do a dramatic reboot right before you save your masterpiece, or you spill coffee on your clean shirt, just take a deep breath. And maybe, just maybe, whisper to yourself, with a slight smirk and a knowing nod, "This too shall pass." Because whether it was a king, a collective of ancient philosophers, or just a bunch of weary folks figuring things out, they were onto something good. And that, my friends, is a thought that truly can pass through anything. Even a Monday.