Look for the Silver Lining
Barb has often found it difficult to “get through” January.
Long, dark days and cold weather can cause us to hole up in our nice, warm homes.
We may have already blown our New Year’s resolutions and be discouraged with ourselves.
The daily news has been downright depressing.
But January is nearly over.
Spring is coming with longer days and warmer temperatures.
She writes today from a reflective stance that hard times don’t last, and that good can come from horrible circumstances.
Be encouraged!
An old newspaper headline caught my attention recently. The article's title was “The Silver Lining in the Cocoanut Grove Fire.”
Something about the sharp contrast between a fire and the term silver lining hooked me. I had to know what good could come from a fire.
So, step back in time with me to 1942. WWII was raging in Europe, North Africa, and Russia.
In the United States, the draft age was lowered from 21 to 18. Car makers were switching from building cars to building war materials. It was a time of uncertainty.
Yet, in the city of Boston, on a late November evening,1,000 partygoers were determined to start their holiday season at night club. The Cocoanut Grove was designed to hold no more than 500 people, yet 1,000 crowded the club.
It was a recipe for potential disaster.
During the evening, a light bulb burned out, and a conscientious custodian climbed a ladder to attend to the problem. He couldn’t see well enough to fix the problem when he reached the top of the ladder. So, he lit a match. An artificial palm tree caught fire, and the entire building was engulfed in flames.
As the throngs of people tried to escape, they encountered six locked doors. Six.
They were trapped. Imagine their panic and fear. Also, the main entrance was a revolving door—not designed to move people quickly—and the door quickly broke, making their escape even more difficult.
Those who made it out were taken to area hospitals. And at one Boston hospital, a person died every 11 seconds during the initial emergency. To put that in perspective, since I began my speech, eleven people would have already died. All total, 492 people lost their lives.
Even worse, those who died we considered lucky. The burns were excruciatingly painful. And, if you survived the burns, infection was common.
Where could there possibly be a silver lining in this tragedy?
People died. Families lost sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers and friends. They were all to face the Christmas season deep in grief. Yet, there was also good that came of this horrific fire – changes that would benefit many.
First, fire codes were rewritten and strictly enforced. Violators were punished.
Second, a secret experimental drug that was only being studied in a lab was brought to Boston in a refrigerated truck in case it could help. That drug was penicillin, which saved dozens of fire victims' lives. Moreover, a short while later, penicillin would save thousands of our soldiers' lives after the invasion of Normandy.
Third, blood plasma was placed on open wounds to prevent infection. This also helped prevent infection and led to the system of blood banks we know today. Experimenting with new procedures forever changed the physical treatment of burns.
The condition of traumatic stress was also studied as psychologists tried to help victims deal with all they had seen and experienced in the fire. Their successes were noted and used in treating WWII vets when they returned home.
Their grief was also studied, and new coping mechanisms were developed.
Take a minute to let the good sink in.
New fire safety laws.
The discovery that penicillin and blood plasma treatments saved lives was revolutionary.
Gains were made in the mental health field as practitioners learned how to treat trauma and grief more efficiently.
Still, does that mean the good outweighed the bad? Of course not, not for the families and friends of those who perished.
The keyword in this article's title is “Look.” If we don’t consider that something good could happen, we might only see the pain and loss in a tragedy.
I want to encourage you all to try something in this new year. Even if you don’t keep a journal, get a notebook and record one good thing that happens each day. Developing a habit of looking for the positive will help you see the silver linings in your life.
Finally, I can’t end by saying to just look for the good. When someone is in severe pain, you don’t want to tell them to look for the good in their lives. Pastor Rick Warren has a statement I love. The deeper someone’s pain, the fewer words are needed.
Grieving people need their loss acknowledged. They need someone to support them, walk alongside them, and help them in practical ways. Grief is a long journey and different for every one of us.
But by supporting someone in their time of loss, you might just be the silver lining in their life.