Publius Rutilius Rufus was incorruptible. And what was his reward for this? He was indicted on trumped up charges and driven into exile. Marcus Aurelius was good and decent and fair. And for this? Fate handed him a plague and floods…and then his best friend attempted a coup. And how do modern historians recognize this? Well, Mary Beard recently called him a fascist.

This is how it goes. Life is not fair.

Dr. Katalin Karikó spent years grinding away in academic obscurity. She came to America with $900. Despite her hard work and brilliant theories, she never made more than $60,000 per year. She had to fight to keep her positions on countless occasions. And then suddenly, in 2020, her mRNA research was of paramount importance to the health and welfare of humanity. Her research directly led to the vaccines that have now saved hundreds of millions of lives from debilitating illness, long-term health problems, and death. The reward for all this quiet struggle and persistence? Well, she was just snubbed for a Nobel Prize.

Again, this is how it goes.

…Don’t work for the external rewards. Because they will not come. Or worse, what does come will not be a reward at all. Instead, do your work because it’s right. Because it’s who you are.

— excerpt, The Daily Stoic

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Our experience of outcomes, and relationships that are fair or unfair is a hallmark of human experience.  It is not unusual to overhear a statement, a response to circumstances, or to a policy — that offends someone’s sense of what is fair.

Upon reflection our expectation of equitable regard ought to be limited to our sense of the course of our relationships with individuals with whom we have interaction.  A friend who I have come to know well, or the bank teller who receives my deposit (about whom I know nothing beyond the exchanged “hello”) is able to treat me fairly, or with indifference.  At the conclusion of a given interaction, the body registers effect of the encounter.  Almost in reflex the mind offers: “That was quite fair/unfair.”

To imagine, to believe that “life” could possibly be fair or unfair….  That’s a entirely human mistake.