Amor Fati. I first came across this phrase on the business card of a young woman I met in Solvang when I was on my On the Road & Off the Grid journey back in July and August of this year. I had studied Latin in high school so I knew what “amor” meant but I was not sure of “fati.” Later, I checked the word’s meaning on the Internet and discovered it meant fate. What a strange phrase to have on one’s business card, I thought. I pondered that phrase for a while and then put it aside for more research and later reflection.
A few months later, I learned by pure happenstance that Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, used this phrase in his writings in the mid-19th Century. He used it to mean loving what happens to you, both good and bad.
The Stoic Philosophers also used a similar understanding in their writings back in the first century AD. Their meaning was not as strong as Nietzsche’s however. I suspect because the Stoics were men of true wisdom, common sense, and prudence. The Stoics did not use love but they wrote that it is best to accept what happens in our lives or accept what is. I agree with this interpretation and use. The past cannot be changed and nothing we do can make a better past for us. However, we can learn from the past and adjust our future actions.
There is another perspective that occurs to me as well which is probably more understandable. All the good things and bad things that happen to us make us who we are.
I would submit that if all of us could learn the lessons of the Stoics that we would be far better off. Amor fati!
Links
External: https://www.azquotes.com/author/4528-Epictetus
Internal: https://whitebeardwisdom.com/product/the-abcs-of-success-2/
