I think that life can be symbolized as a line that will sometimes make circles, sometimes curves, maybe it can go to the sky, or just be down on earth, perhaps, or that in a second it can go from 0 to the infinite. You never know how or where your line will go.
Anyone of us can just lose everything in a second: money, possessions, family, friends, and love. However, the only thing we will never lose is our capacity to reason, which is what makes the difference between living things and humans. Boethius’ life is the perfect example of this; he is in jail, disgraced because he thinks he has lost everything in his life. His mind and memories about his old life constitute his internal jail, which will not allow him to feel free. He is sure he has followed Philosophy in all his actions but he just got tricked by the Fortune.
It is very interesting how Boethius express the difference between Fortune and Philosophy in his work “Consolation of Philosophy”. He shows how Fortune can let you “borrow” some things but you will have to give them back, while philosophy will be a sort of guardian angel that will never let you down. So, Boethius’ problem was really that he was missing his past Fortune, and that was the main reason that he was not able to return to the wisdom of philosophy.
We pay a lot of attention to what we gain through our lives. We get excited every time we are being honored or we make some extra money. We love showing everybody what we just bought or just what we have. This book makes me ask myself “is this what really matters in life? Or is it just an illusion?"
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Your posts have both been wonderful so far! Very insightful and interesting!
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