Fortune

One of my Spanish profs in college was from Argentina, and had been in college during the Dirty War years. She thought at the time that she had kept herself safe by not associating with subversives, keeping her head down.

After the dictatorship, when she learned who had done what, when she found out just how bad it was, she realized she was totally wrong. Just being in a class with a suspected subversive, knowing the wrong person, being in their addressbook, was grounds for detention, disappearance, death. All her efforts to keep herself safe were useless: only chance averted disaster.

Similarly, although I have tried my best, I recognize the more-than-significant role of chance in my own good fortune. I am not sure if I deserve it, and more importantly, I am not sure how much my own efforts have determined any of it. It makes the phrase “those less fortunate” ring in my ears: in many cases it’s only luck that brings people low.

Much will be expected from those to whom much has been given.