Let him stew in his own juice.

There is a popular saying that deserves to be restored to its deep value as a philosophy of life: “Let him stew in his own juice.” It is the praise of waiting. Instead of rebutting, intervening, or insisting in an attempt to convince the other, the wisest choice is, sometimes, to let it be. Things may sort themselves out (or maybe not), but waiting is still preferable to the waste of energy required to change the mind of someone who does not want to change.

The style of waiting almost always triumphs over stubbornness, at any level of responsibility, wealth, or ideology. History, after all, runs its course even without our insistence on diverting it at all costs. Waiting for the meat to cook by itself can even surprise us: the resulting food might turn out to be better than what we would have prepared with time, effort, and tenacious commitment.

Giving up, in some cases, is preferable to fighting. When you can’t achieve something with intelligence and tenacity, it’s better to let it go and seek new horizons. It’s an invitation to trust in fate rather than being overwhelmed by it, as Seneca taught. After all, even an inert body possesses its own potential energy, simply by being matter.

Einstein said that “God does not play dice,” convinced that the universe followed a strict design. Years later, Stephen Hawking refined that aphorism with striking irony: “Not only does God play dice, but sometimes he throws them where we cannot see them.”

Yet, even in this apparent cosmic gamble, what surprises us and seems to defy logic responds to a hidden equation: if we don’t explain it today, we will explain it in the future. There is a deep reassurance in this: in the face of the unpredictability of fate, there is still a transcendent order – or a simple mathematical formula – that will give meaning to what we do not understand now. Behind a traumatic event, there is always a reason.