Clinging to life: from Seneca to Django Reinhardt
- Ariane Bilheran
- 20 minutes ago
- 8 min read
La Licorne (the Unicorn) N° 29 by Ariane Bilheran, February 1, 2026.
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Fortune strikes indiscriminately and without warning, the Ancients told us, for better or for worse: represented as a wheel, as in the tenth card of the Tarot of Marseilles, it can make a beggar king, or depose a king in a single day. To philosophize is to tame the blows of fate, and to reject the suggestions of this "harlot" that is Fortune, as Boethius called her in The Consolation of Philosophy.
Given this reality, aren't life's major setbacks actually opportunities? Or is this a myth we tell ourselves to make the bitter pill easier to swallow?
This is what I wanted to examine with you in this Unicorn N°29, in light of various trials that have recently appeared on my path.
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