WHAT IS FORTUNE?
For thousands of years, man has contemplated the question –“What is Fortune?” He has come up with thousands of answers. Amazingly enough, with all of these answers, very few people can actually say that they feel fortunate. There is an ancient Chinese story that speaks of the nature of Fortune in an extremely interesting way.
Several thousand years ago China had an extremely cruel and egotistical dictator. He was the individual who ordered the building of the six thousand mile wall around the country. To understand the flavor of the times, one must know that many people died in the building of that wall, and their bodies were buried in it. Now during this time, there was a very old Chinese man who had only two possession in the world that he loved; his only son, and his only horse. But, as luck would have it, one day the horse ran away. Upon hearing of this all of the elders of the town came to console him saying, “How unfortunate it is that your horse has run away.: The old man looked at them and replied, “How do you know it is unfortunate?”
Several days later the horse returned, followed by six other horses. Thus, the man’s wealth was greatly increased. Upon seeing this, the elders of the town came around again and said, “How fortunate it is that you now have seven horses.” The old man thought for a moment. Then he looked at them as before and replied, “How do you know it is fortunate?”
That afternoon the old man’s only son decided to try to ride one of the wild horses. He fell and became a cripple as a result. Now the elders gathered around again and said, “How unfortunate it is that your son fell of the horse and cannot walk.” The old man answered them in the same way saying, “How do you know it is unfortunate?” The elders became very puzzled and went away.
The following day the Emperor’s men came to this very same town. They had orders to enlist all the able-bodied young men in the task of building by hand the horrible six thousand mile wall. Every young man from the town was taken, except the son of the old man.. When this occurred the elders of the town were sure they finally understood the wisdom of the old man. They came up to him again and said, “How fortunate you are that your son was not taken to build the wall.” Again, the old man looked at them and said, “How do you know it is fortunate?”
By this time the elders were completely puzzled. They went off by themselves and held counsel with each other. Then they returned to the old man and said, “We have spoken among ourselves, and agree that you are the wisest man in all of China. We would consider it to be very fortunate if you would be our town mayor.” The old man threw up his hands in despair and said, “How do you know it would be fortunate? I do not want the job.” And he walked away.
He may very well have been the most fortunate man in all of China—for he knew the secret of fortune!