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“My marriage has failed, but, hey, at least I’ll never have to see my motherin-law again! Every cloud has a silver lining.”

Your letters to Spotlight, a useful proverb and upcoming topics

“Every cloud has a silver lining” reminds us that in every bad situation, you can find some good, too, and that something positive might come out of a problem.

The English writer John Milton created the phrase “silver lining” in a poem in 1634. He described a sky full of dark clouds, but he thought he could see a little ray of moonlight shining through the darkness:

“Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud / Turn forth her silver lining on the night?”

In the past, this phrase was used as an encouragement, as a call for hope and optimism, like the similar proverb: “There’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

These days, however, it is often used humorously or ironically, like in our example on the left.

It can also refer to an opportunity that you may not see straightaway: “This global crisis could have a silver lining for our firm.” A similar idiom refers to something as “being a blessing in disguise”.

A snapshot of America

On November 3, Americans will vote for a new president. These are troubling times for the US. Millions of its citizens are infected with Covid-19 and, at the time of going to press, more than 140,000 people had died from the virus. The economy is struggling and businesses are closing across the country. How do US citizens see their situation? And how do they feel about the future? We ask ordinary Americans to give us a snapshot of their lives.

The journey of the Mayflower

When a group of English Puritans sailed to the New World in September 1620, they were hoping to escape religious persecution. But first, they had to cross a wild and unfriendly ocean. On the 400th anniversary of that crossing, we give you a taste of life on the good ship Mayflower in a very special short story.