溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
The Wealth Given by Fortune's Wheel — Was It Ever, Even Once, Truly Mine?
If the wealth I believed I owned was only ever resting for a moment on the ever-turning wheel of fortune, what, then, is truly mine?
The wheel turns; and now, by its very turning, I go down.
This image of Fortune's wheel became the representative icon depicting the vanity of wealth and status throughout medieval Europe, repeatedly carved as literal wheel imagery in medieval manuscripts and cathedral stained glass. Boethius, heir to Stoic philosophy, reconstructed it along Epictetan lines, dividing what is and is not within our control — but later Christian theology added another layer, divine providence, reinterpreting the wheel's turning not as meaningless chance but as part of a larger order.
Even today, watching markets rise and fall, this insight — asking what can truly be called mine before something whose very nature is to rise and fall — remains coolly valid.
Boethius, once one of Rome's highest officials, wrote this book awaiting execution on a charge of treason.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Boethius, once one of Rome's highest officials, wrote this book awaiting execution on a charge of treason. Through the voice of Fortune, he answers himself: turning the wheel is my very nature; if you did not complain when you were high, you have no right to complain now that you are low. I find comfort, oddly, in this cold logic. If it was only ever borrowed, taking it back is no betrayal. I too consider today what I hold that was, in truth, only ever entrusted to me for a while.
✍️Your Answer
The lineage of the ancients ends here. Now it is your turn before the question. There is no right answer — only how you, today, would answer.
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