Delphic Maxim 77: Be fond of fortune
I’ve set myself the challenge of responding to each Delphic Maxim for 15 minutes a day.
77. Be fond of fortune
Around the time of Plato and Aristotle, there lived a man who we now know as Diogenes the Cynic. Diogenes lived in pretty squalid conditions — preferring the gutter to the banquet table. But because of his preparedness to not seek for anything in life, Diogenes was able to turn a critical eye on what he saw as the pretensions and extravagance of Greek society at the time (particularly that of the philosophers, and especially Plato).
Once, when he was visiting Sparta, he saw a friend of his preparing for a festival, excited and exuberant. Diogenes asked him: “doesn’t a good person feel like every day is a festival?”
This reminds me a little of a line from my favourite book, The Solitaire Mystery, by Jostein Gaarder. In the book, Hans Thomas is travelling from Norway to Greece with his father, a philosopher. His father never seems to tire of life, he thinks it is a wonderful miracle that we even exist at all:
“We are dolls, bursting with life!”
I’ve mentioned this in a much earlier maxim, a reminder that life — and by extension, fortune — is a wonderful mystery that continues to enchant us as long as we exist. So I think a reminder to be fond of fortune is a good one, even if fortune doesn’t always go our way.
There’s a degree of stoicism to this maxim as well, because being prepared to accept our fates (or the vicissitudes of life and chance), is kind of a fundamental tenant of Stoic philosophy. For Diogenes, the miserable things that fortune might serve up to us were learning opportunities:
“Thank you, Fortune, for training me to virtue by means of such afflictions!”
Like most things, the ancients had a god to represent the sorts of random events and contingencies of destiny. The Romans called this goddess Fortuna, and the Greeks new her as Tyche. So there may also have been a sense in which one should be fond of this goddess, in case she should ever come knocking at your door. The gods had a habit of showing up on mortal doorsteps, looking to test their hospitality (don’t forget to honour the hearth!). Should Tyche ever arrive, and she often does in life, you can never be sure of her disposition but it is safer to be welcoming than to resist the tide of destiny.
The idea that our mindset allows us a degree of control over our lives is echoed across cultures. We don’t have control of fortune — we can shape and control what things we can, and maybe leave ourselves more exposed to good luck, but ultimately things happen over which we have no say. Fortune is a learning experience, and a more positive outlook on life — even when disaster strikes — will at least help us deal with randomness and calamity than sinking into despair.
It’s hard to be fond of fortune all the time, but she’s never out to get us. When she brings lemons, make lemonade.
