Our culture is centered around success in almost any area - work, art, marriage and so on. It’s committed to resisting the idea that all of this involves way more luck and uncertainty than we’d like to admit.
For example, if you die climbing everyone says you are a foolhardy idiot. But if you just don’t die - and everyone who climbs long enough knows part of that is luck - everyone says you are a hero and an icon.
If you have health problems that requires accommodation, lots of people get annoyed and think you are being difficult. But if someone actually dies from it then to the same people they’re a hero and a warrior and “health is so important” and “please reach out if you need help!” (this is a reverse to the first example, isn’t it?)
If you can’t relate to needing to do or be something different to the status quo and you feel like you’ve earned all the good things that have come to you in life, I’d like to remind you that the favor of the gods can expire at any time and one thing they hate is hubris.
From Rachael Meager.
success and health
if success = luck + skills, if skills can be acquired and learned, if health = genes + lifestyle, if lifestyle can be chosen, we tend to think our success more from skills instead of luck, our health more from lifestyles than genes.