Good Fortune: Episode One
Things don’t always go according to plan….
Hi. This is Good Fortune and I’m your host, Matt Van Natta. Today’s questions:
- Why Good Fortune and what’s with that raven?
- Stoic podcast, huh, well what sort of Stoic podcast?
Alright, let’s get started!
Why Good Fortune and what’s with that raven?
So this is it, episode one of a new Stoic podcast. Once again, I’m Matt Van Natta and I started blogging at ImmoderateStoic.com in 2012, just a year after I started practicing Stoicism in earnest. Since then, my writing has been featured in a variety of places including the websites of Stoicism Today and The Spiritual Naturalist Society. Stoicism Today also included me in their book of Selected Writings. Additionally, I’m a co-host of the Stoic podcast, Painted Porch. I’m also a husband, a father, and a newly minted Oregonian. I just got my driver’s license this week.
So why title this project Good Fortune? It comes from a favorite Stoic quote. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was a practicing Stoic. He kept a personal journal about that journey and it has stayed with us until this very day. It’s usually titled simply, Meditations. In Meditations Aurelius says, “Misfortune, born nobly, is good fortune.” To Stoics, there isn’t really any bad or good fortune in the world, what happens is simply what happened. It’s our personal judgments about events that make things appear good or bad. Aurelius wanted to stop judging events and, instead, judge his own response to events. Would he shut down at the first sign of an obstacle, or adapt and press on? Would he waste his life fearing events that were out of his control, or focus on living with excellence no matter what came his way? “Misfortune, born nobly is good fortune.” It’s a very short phrase that illustrates an important facet of the Stoic view of life. I picked the title Good Fortune because this podcast will be focused on understanding and applying the Stoic orientation to life, so that each of us can learn to live in a state of constant good fortune.
I promised I’d explain the raven as well. I stared at that raven so much during the past months I feel it deserves a name, maybe I’ll call her Fortuna? Anyway, the raven is there because ravens are often considered ill omens. The ancient Stoics believed in omens and divination. There are a variety of reasons they took this view, too many to go into right now. Let’s just accept that the Stoics believed that certain signs could lead us to knowledge of what was to come. In the Enchirideon, which is a handbook composed of notes from the Stoic teacher Epictetus’ lectures, Chapter 18 specifically addresses omens and ravens. It ends saying, “…but for me every portent is favorable, if I so wish; for whatever the outcome be, it is within my power to derive benefit from it.” So omens were neither good or bad. They’re just road signs for life. No matter the signs, how we travel the road remains up to us. You can see how closely aligned Chapt