How Do We Know

10

OPPORTUNITY: THE GREAT ART OF LIFE?

To improve the golden moment of opportunity and catch the good that is within our reach; is the great art of life.

—SAMUEL JOHNSON

While I agree with Johnson, there are numerous exceptions which warrant the question mark in my title, an example being furnished by the English divine, Isaac Watts (1674-1748): “Life is a long tragedy, this globe the stage.” In view of the fact that the best among us never complain about the lack of opportunities, it seems appropriate to reflect on these countless blessings.

A formula for a successful life is to be ready for any and all opportunities which are in harmony with our capabilities or talents. No two persons, past or present, are identical in this respect. Indeed, each individual, when striving for improvement, changes from day to day. Up to age thirty five, I had more than a dozen occupations, all of which I abandoned—disharmonious! Further, on four occasions I was offered jobs with salaries four to five times what I was receiving. Refused! I finally found my occupational niche: the love of liberty and a craving to better understand and explain this way of life. So far, nearly fifty years of joyous work.

Suppose that everyone else had a goal identical to mine and worked at nothing else. All would perish! There would be no food or housing or countless other necessities of life.

A fact shocking to most individuals: all would perish were there no freedom! Why does this give the appearance of contradicting historical facts? People survived under the reign of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and numerous others of this despicable ilk. The explanation: there were at least two reasons, (1) disobedience and (2) goods and services traded with people in productive nations.

To grasp the point, merely imagine that no citizen of these unfortunate nations could produce or exchange anything which their dictocrat did not specify. Such a fathead couldn’t even manage the lives of his few neighbors, let alone the millions unknown to him or their talents and opportunities. It is self-evident that all would perish including the know-it-all!

Here is an excellent metaphor—figure of speech—by Shakespeare:

There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries; and we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

Meaning? In history’s ups and downs, dating back to the Sumerians of about 4,500 years ago, there have been several freedom-oriented civilizations, the greatest of all being the U.S.A., as designed by our Founding Fathers.1

Those familiar with the Bard of Avon’s thinking know that he was not referring to pounds or dollars or any other monetary unit by the word “fortune.” What then? Truth—Righteousness. For confirmation: “. . . to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

. . . omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries; and we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures. Most of our miseries come from a want of courage to speak the truth, as one sees it or, worse yet, to have no inkling of truth, or love of it. Life’s worthwhile ventures at a dead end!

Wrote the American author, Bayard Taylor (1825-78): “Opportunity is rare, and a wise man will never let it go by him.” As already noted, opportunities are indeed rare in countries where one cannot act creatively as he or she pleases. Rare, too, are opportunities for you or me that are beyond the range of our potentialities or talents. Astronomy is no more within my range than is the making of an ordinary wooden lead pencil.2 And, all too rare are the astronomers—or those who have a part in pencil-making and countless other specializations—who strive for an understanding of human liberty. The wise individual will never “let it go by him.”

Wrote Christina, the Queen of Sweden (1626-89): “It is necessary to try to surpass one’s self always; this occupation ought to last as long as life.” What an insight, a revelation that goes to the very root of human destiny—the wellspring of what man is intended to become! Wrote Tryon Edwards, “Thoughts lead us to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits form character; and character fixes our destiny.” The hope of an improving America rests on improving characters and the road to this exemplarity is to surpass one’s self every day of mortal life!

An excellent thought by the American clergyman, William Ellery Channing (1780-1842): “The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men equal opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.” Note the ways that governments—federal, state and local (approximately 78,000 of them)—strive to impose their stupid ideas of happiness on us. There are more than anyone knows. A few samples: social security, food stamps, local swimming pools, government financed “educational institutions,” ventures into outer space.

Citizens by the millions are victims of a false happiness when they observe flights into outer space. Why false? No one, in or out of government, knows the cost. A hundred billion dollars is doubtless an underestimation. Now, suppose there could be no such flights into fancy except financing by voluntary donations. What would the revenue be? Relatively nothing! I, for one, wouldn’t give a dime. I would spend my money for ventures that bring happiness to me. Doubtless, most others would do the same. Equal opportunity for one and all!

Wrote B. C. Forbes: “Opportunity knocks as often as a man has an ear trained to hear her, an eye trained to see her, and a head trained to utilize her.”

The great art of life, equal opportunity, is, indeed, within our reach: freedom for one and all!

• 1See Science Is a Sacred Cow by Anthony Standen (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1950), pp. 63-64.
• 2“No one can read our Constitution without concluding that the people who wrote it wanted their government severely limited; the words ‘no’ and ‘not’ employed in restraint of governmental power occur 24 times in the first seven articles of the Constitution and 22 more times in the Bill of Rights.” (“Liberty and Ethical Values,” Edmund A. Opitz)