“The Consolation of Philosophy”

When your favorite poems
Fail to move you
When your sacred verses
Cannot elevate you
When even
The deadly modern drugs
Do nothing to you
And you are still left
Wondering
How to make sense
Of the baffling
Events and
Behavior of people
Around you
And you have nowhere to turn
Here is a name,
My friend,
Who may assist:
Boethius.
His life story
Is his message.
A Roman Senator
By occupation
A philosopher
By temperament.
Powerful and rich
With a beautiful wife
Children and large estates,
One day everything was stripped from him.
The ruler was displeased.
Several rough guards marched
Into the Senator’s home
And took him to a dungeon
Where they would carry out
The orders of the ruler:
Bludgeon the prisoner to death.
While he pondered
The misery of his fate
And tried to make sense of his life
He saw a majestic woman
With luminous eyes
In his cell.
She radiated benevolence
And introduced herself
As Lady Philosophy.
She warned Boethius
Of her rival
Lady Fortune
And her Wheel of Fortune
Which placed you on top
One moment and
Without warning or cause
Flung you
To the bottom
The next
Lady Fortune was as fickle
As she was seductive.
Boethius must develop immunity
And resist her,
Warned
Lady Philosophy.
It helped Boethius
To reconcile to his predicament
And to write
What became a widely read book
Throughout Europe
For the next few centuries,
The Consolation of Philosophy.
So when Lady Fortune
Comes a calling
Remember the lesson:
Her munificence
Is as illusory as her negligence.
Little we do
Can prevent
The pain
Or the joy
We are subject to.
But Lady Philosophy
Helps us to become better
Indurated to the turbulence
That comes with the turning
Of the
Wheel of Fortune.

Akbar Ahmed
Washington, DC
(Akbar Ahmed is a distinguished ex-diplomat, author and academician. He resides in Washington, DC)