Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 4.33

“As a better man than I has said, ‘The powers of virtues build up the body of a good man.’

“It often happens that the duty of a supreme authority is assigned to good men for the purpose of pruning the insolent growth of wickedness.

“To some, Providence grants a mingled store of good and bad, according to the nature of their minds.

“Some she treats bitterly, lest they grow too exuberant with long continued good fortune. Others she allows to be harassed by hardships that the virtues of their minds should be strengthened by the habit and exercise of patience.

Some have too great a fear of sufferings which they can bear; others have too great contempt for those which they cannot bear: these she leads on by troubles to make trial of themselves.

“Some have brought a name to be honored for all time at the price of a glorious death. Some by showing themselves undefeated by punishment, have left a proof to others that virtue may be invincible by evil.

“What doubt can there be of how rightly such things are disposed, and that they are for the good of those whom we see them befall?”

—from Book 4, Prose 6

We are all quite familiar with a model of justice where the righteous should have things granted to them, while the unrighteous should have them taken away. Given that we view wealth, power, and honor as desirable commodities, it makes sense that we would accordingly distribute them based upon our measure of merit, employing their presence or absence as rewards or punishments.

We remember it from school, and it passed effortlessly into our adult lives. For many of us, it soon became an automatic association between good character and good fortune on the one hand, and bad character and bad fortune on the other. Decent people got promotions, and the criminal element went to prison.

As effective as the stick and the carrot may appear, is this the only way to achieve a deeper justice? I wondered, from an early age, if it always worked out the way it should, because the debits and credits didn’t necessarily seem to add up. If I looked closely, I also saw that prosperity made some people worse, and if I looked even more closely, I also saw that hardship made some people better.

Was it perhaps our assumption that wealth was always beneficial, and poverty was always harmful, that was getting in the way? Didn’t it encourage a reversal of priorities, where one simply behaved, followed the rules, and colored inside the lines as a means to becoming successful, instead of viewing the life of virtue as its own success? If character was just a stepping-stone to something better, was it really a measure of merit at all? Is this why so many people seemed to cheat, worried more about appearing good than being good?

Most of my betters frowned upon these sorts of questions, which made me wonder if they were hiding something, or perhaps afraid that the whole edifice would collapse if we didn’t keep our blinders on.

Perhaps our system of rewards and punishments is the best that humans can do, limited as we are in the scope of our knowledge and power. Perhaps Providence, having no limits in the scope of her knowledge and power, can do something more.

If the content of character is indeed the human end, and not merely a means, then any other conditions will be relative to it. There are times when giving me more will help me to improve myself, and there are times when giving me less will help me to improve myself.

Fortune spins her wheel, and I should not assume that those who go up are necessarily blessed, while those who go down are necessarily cursed. The image reminds me that the fruits of life will come and go, that circumstances are fickle, but it need not be some random or heartless game. If there is Divine Mind behind all things, then it must all work for a purpose, however obscure it is in my eyes.

A few always seem to get ahead, and a few always seem to fall behind. We carelessly and heartlessly call them “winners” and “losers”, though we are not at all considering how they will choose to respond to their place on the wheel, and whether they will take the opportunity from it to live well.

Most of us seem to get a mixed bag, and it isn’t always clear why this happens as it does. Careful, honest, and humble reflection, however, can reveal how certain events, however insignificant they at first seemed, can be a point of focus for us. We stand at the crossroads, and the smallest things may inspire us to pick one path or another.

And some of us, however pure our intentions, however hard we struggle to be good, seem to get more and more obstacles thrown in our way. It hardly comes across as fair, and that is probably because I am looking at the part and not the whole.

There are times, for all of us, when trouble and strife make it possible to become stronger, not by a mastery over others, but by a mastery over ourselves.

There are also times, for all of us, when what we choose to do will have an effect on others we might not foresee, where our sacrifices, even to the point of death, might give heart to others who struggle.

We may become great cooperators with Providence, taking the little bits of wisdom and love within us and passing them on to others.

Written in 11/2015