Clouds with their silver linings and storms are like Cities with their opportunities and hardships

CorporateNature No 144

Clouds produce both beautiful views and rainstorms depending on your relative position as observer. Cities create opportunities and offer hardship depending on your social status.

1. CLOUDS

Does every cloud have a silver lining? It depends on your point of observation.

You may get to see a silver lining if you are under a cloud looking up towards the sun but this is nothing compared with the vast expanse of silver and silk that you would see if you were flying by plane above the clouds. The way the cookie crumbles is:

A) If you are high up, you are bound to enjoy the resplendent brightness of the clouds beneath you.

Z) If you are under the clouds, you may occasionally see some silver linings but you are quite likely to get soaked by the rain.

2. CITIES

The same principle applies to the world’s cities:

A) If you are well-off or well-positioned in society, you are likely to see cities as exciting places full of opportunities: higher earning potential, access to education and social networks, beautiful architecture and parks, glamorous restaurants, offices and conference venues.

Z) If you are lower in the social hierarchy and at the bottom of the wealth distribution pyramid, you will hardly see many of these opportunities and you will experience a lot of the hardships: high rents, relatively expensive transportation and food, long commutes, crime and insecurity. 

The higher you go, the more the skies beneath will open up for you in your city. The lower you are, the more exposed to the elements you'll be. Sadly, this is how "the cloud crumbles and the city thunders."

Every cloud has a silver lining (image source: Wikipedia) 

Opportune moments come few and far between. Cicadas wait 17 years for one

Three stories about revenge, insects and fires tackle the principle of "bide your time" and wait for the opportunity
CorporateNature metaphor series, No 126

STORY 1: ROYAL REVENGE IN ANCIENT CHINA
The Chinese idiom 卧薪尝胆 (wò xīn cháng dǎn) - literally "to sleep on firewood and taste gallbladder" - today means "to undergo self-imposed hardship to strengthen one's resolve for revenge". The story behind this idiom takes place in China's Warring States period. Towards the end of the 5th century B.C., the king of Wu attacked the state of Yue and took king Gou Jian of Yue as his prisoner. Gou Jian spent the next three years as personal servant to the king of Wu. During this time, he diligently followed every order of the king of Wu. He maintained the memory of his humiliation by subjecting himself to the harsh experience of sleeping on firewood spread across the floor and regularly eating gallbladder. By doing this, he "burned the bridges" towards forgiveness and didn't let go of his desire for vengeance. When Gou Jian eventually returned to Yue, he raised an army and conquered Wu.

STORY 2: THE 17-YEAR LIFE CYCLE OF CICADAS
The North American periodical cicada (Magicicada) is an insect with an extraordinary life cycle. For 13 or 17 years the larvae of these creatures lie dormant underground in the root of trees, drinking sap and waiting for the opportune moment to begin their adult life. Their life cycle is exactly 13 or 17 years (for different species) to allow all insects to emerge synchronised at the same time. The prime number of years appears to be an evolutionary adaptation against predators, who are unlikely to be able to synchronise their life cycles over such a long period. "If a brood were to emerge in cycles divisible by a smaller number, then local predators could reap rewards by synchronising their own shorter cycles and emerge in large numbers exactly when the cicadas appear. The large prime number of years saves the cicadas' skin (or rather shell).

STORY 3: ARCTIC FIRES CAN HIBERNATE
When you think of recent natural disasters, the fires in California or Australia spring to mind. But did you know that there are fires in the Arctic and they can smoulder under the snow for a year, keeping burning throughout the harsh Arctic winter. These "zombie fires" find oxygen-rich underground pockets in the peat layer where they can hibernate during the winter and reactivate when the weather allows. Some of the Siberian wildfires of 2019 have been hibernating underground and are coming to the surface again only now when the summer weather is offering a good opportunity.

CONCLUSION
When faced with a monumental task, the principle of "bide your time" is a good bet. Instead of diving in at the first instance, often it is better to withdraw and wait for the opportune moment... for 17 years if need be, if you are a cicada.

Mars rover "Opportunity"
(image source: Wikipedia)