Amor Fati

love of one’s fate

Intellectuals of our age think of fate as a mere excuse of the lazy people. It is now believed that people who do not want to take responsibility for themselves blame everything on destiny and a divine plan. For of course, to the rational mind there is no such thing. Its all a fortunate or an unfortunate accident. Cause and effect. Which puts the kind of responsibility on us under the burden of which we are likely to give up.

But if we ever sit down quietly and wonder about our existences , we can see that all of it is not so black and white after all. There is so much gray in between. The gray which is neither the cause nor the effect, it is something else entirely. Like a story written very thoughtfully by some writer. Like a mystery that unfolds with each passing second. The question is are we the writer of our story or is it some divine being up in the clouds?

There are certain things that we are surely responsible for and often we fall short of those responsibilities. That is when we indulge in self loathing. And if it is the outer circumstances that didn’t turn out to be in our favor then it is self pity. Both emotions are quite useless and nothing productive can come out of them.

Coming back to the question of what fate is, it is a combination of both. Our existence is a drop in the ocean and though the drop is an ocean in itself the tide decides where it ll end up. That ought to take a heavy burden off of our shoulders and lets us take comfort in the fact that eventually it all will make sense. We just need to embrace whats given to us, accept what is not, and make the most of what we can.

Contentment is just that. Acceptance of what is and what isn’t. Else, there is a lot to complain about in the world. A lot to resent.

Nietzsche described the idea as,

“That one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backwards, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it….but love it.”

This does not imply that we should be just by standers to what ever is going wrong in the world or in our lives. Maybe its happening because we are meant to do something about it. Maybe it is fate. Trying to make us stronger and better.