Sweet are The Uses of Adversity Story : Like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
Adversity is the test of character. The weak and the infirm break into pieces and are grinded to powder in the mill of adversity. But the real man who has real strength of character emerges out as an even stronger, greater and firmer creation of God. We learn to suffer with dignity and forbearance so that we become noble and brave. Pursued and persuaded by adversity, we learn to fight and face the world alone without relying on fair-weather friends.
Bacon, the father of English Essays said once, “The virtue of poverty is temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude, which in mortals is the more heroic virtue”. It is adversity that keeps the human in us alive. In days of hay and sunshine, we are apt to get lost in the glory and honour, and grow indifferent to human feelings and sufferings. But when adversity strikes, we learn to be humble, sensitive and sympathetic.
Perseverance, despite all odds, can change failure into success. Favourable and adverse situations shouldn’t be taken as separate concepts. These are mutually dependent and can be as fruitful as harmful. The so-called ‘harmful effects’ can be nullified through mental reconditioning. A wise man treats all situations with equanimity.
Thus, it is only in times of adversity that the human soul transcends and rises above the mundane forms of life. It makes the soul sublime because prosperity easily brings in vice but it is adversity that discovers the virtue.
