EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING

In 1606, the bubonic plague returned to London. Two years earlier, it had

killed 30,000 of its inhabitants. The plague hit like a hammer that
winter. This time the city took no chances. It shut down on a massive
scale. All the theaters closed. This was a bitter blow for playwrights and
actors. Out of work and under house arrest, they had little to do
but twiddle their thumbs and play the waiting game.

A young playwright named William Shakespeare used the lockdown to his

advantage. He wrote some of his most famous plays in isolation. The
plague had a profound influence on his writing. He captured the tragedy
and hope of his era in words that resonate to this day.

Shakespeare was not the only genius who blossomed in isolation. In

1665, Sir Isaac Newton fled England’s capital city to avoid the Great
Plague of London. While self-isolating in the countryside, he reflected on
many scientific questions. He described lockdown as his annus
mirabilis. This translates as “year of wonders.”

Newton finetuned his theory of optics during this period. Yet it was the
apple tree outside his window that would be world-changing. One day,
Newton watched an apple fall from its branches. At that moment, he
enjoyed a crystal-clear moment of clarity. His theory of gravity was born.

Four centuries later, the world is now being transformed by another

pandemic. The coronavirus has struck like a bolt out of the blue. We
have all had to adapt to a new way of living while putting our former lives
on hold.

Yet just as every cloud has a silver lining, a British man believes the
virus might be a blessing in disguise.

Movie producer Tom Roberts has written a poem on Covid-19, which has
since gone viral. The Great Realization explains how the world could be
a better place in the wake of the pandemic.

Read to a young boy in a post-Coronavirus age, the poem begins by

describing 2020 as a “world of waste and wonder.” It explains how we
were living in a vicious cycle of consumption, greed, poverty, and
pollution.

Roberts reveals how lockdown made us all realize what was

important. He describes how we beat the virus and became a fairer and
more sustainable society.

He explains that sometimes you need to get sick before you can get
better.

Roberts said he wrote the poem because he believes in the power of

positive thinking. He stressed, “I think if you believe in good coming out of
something bad, then it probably will.”