#99. Fate

In this world, we have all come to terms with the new normal, driven by gaining and maximising control of everything (and everyone) we can. However, today, I want to talk about a component that has and will continue to remain out of the grasp of human control, which is fate. Let’s see how we can not fall prey to the overused thinking of predestined realities, and make the most of this facet of life.

“My formula for human greatness is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not in the future, not in the past, not for all eternity. Not only to endure what is necessary, still less to conceal it — all idealism is falseness in the face of necessity — , but to love it…”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

One thing that almost everyone yearns to have more of is control. At an individual level, all of us desire to have more control over our time, finances and levels of happiness, among a number of other things. As a society, we look for control over areas like civic amenities and security infrastructure, among a number of other things. Not only do we want to control all of these variables for ourselves, but also for other members in our families.

Why the need for control? Because allows us to change things, especially when they are not going our way. Fundamental examples, a hungry man eats to not feel hungry, and a thirsty man drinks. A person facing symptoms of illness visits the doctor to alleviate his sickness. There are any number of examples we can all think of to prove the hypothesis of control eliciting change.

However, there is one facet of life, which has been an exception to controllability, and not for the lack of trying by humans. That is Fate. If you ask some, fate is an uncontrollable force, that governs every aspect of our lives. The doctrine is that everything is predestined and we are just playing small roles in the grand scheme of things.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Are we just insignificant cogs in the universal machine?

Are we here to merely act out a script that has been written for us, and we don’t even know what the next act is?

I digress, and I don’t want to go into a nihilistic spiral. I’ll come back to the subject at hand. For us control freaky humans, one can understand why this school of thought would be disconcerting. How do we control what we don’t know anything about? Let’s break the problem down, shall we? If everything is predestined, there must be a place where we can find our destinies, right?

Consequently, we take the most logical route to tame this untamed mistress. We have a healthy respect for the unfamiliar or the fear of the unknown, as it is fondly referred to. So, in our own minds, we make small, predictive calls on a regular basis to ensure we take the right actions which would minimise suffering for us in the future.

As much as these efforts seem to provide us with a sense of comfort, we don’t know what or how something is going to manifest itself in our lives. This is true for both good and bad future occurrences alike. Think about this, when we aim for something positive, we become impatient. On the flip side, if we know of an impending negative situation, that manifests itself as stress and anxiety.

That brings me to a school of thought which to me is gravely under-appreciated, and that is to love our fates, no matter what it has in store for us.

Do I mean resign from all worldly responsibilities because our fates are predetermined? No, not at all. What I mean is accept our fates, enjoy all the good, mourn the bad, but do not let that deter the path you have chosen for yourself.

The adage of “Amor Fati” is one that took a lot of great people through some tough times. “Amor Fati” translates to “love of fate” or love for one’s fate. Fredrik Nietzsche described this as the formula for human greatness. There are numerous instances where some of the greats in their times emphasised making the most of what we get, instead of fretting about what we ought to get, or didn’t get.

Here is why I think, from a purely logical perspective, that this is one of the greatest things we can do. We live in a world of entropy and uncertainty, both being factors which we have no control over. Isn’t it fair that we accept uncertainty and continue to go about life with the gusto of, for the lack of a better word, an ignorant person?

There is a beauty in going about our lives undeterred by what fate brings to us.

This not only allows us to be centered, but also frees up our mental bandwidth to focus on things that truly need to be focussed on. And in today’s overstimulated world, lord knows how much we need our mental bandwidths in order to attain and maintain, the good life.

If you stuck around this far, thank you for your time. If you enjoyed this, share this with one friend of yours whom you think will benefit from reading this. Thanks for reading, and I will see you in the next one. 🙂