Amor Fati

A good spirit or Tykhon (the personification of good fortune). The good spirit holds spits in his hands as a sign of good luck, and is shown with enlarged genitals.

Today was a nice day. There were no bad news, no life-threatening events. Everything was boring and ordinary and quiet and comfortable. But at any moment it could have been worse. Mistakes could have been made, or a confluence could have occurred where things overlapped and changed everything for me. 

I think that as we grow older this becomes more and more apparent - that we don't have absolute control over the universe. Our death or our ruination may come in the next breath, and we would never know. What things are even now happening behind the scenes, to someday threaten our lives and hopes and dreams? For the sake of our sanity we retreat ourselves into self-contained, "safe" little universes. Thinking that if we do not mind what's out there, that it can't hurt us; we strike this bargain, conveniently forgetting that those outside forces didn't actually agree to this deal. We will never be immune to absurd coincidence ruling our lives.

Greater men have been laid low by circumstance. And not everyone who adapts does so quickly enough, or appropriately enough. Robert Greene talked about "Amor Fati" - loving your fate, whatever it might be. This is the same concept the Stoics espoused, with regard to not letting your mind be clouded. Victor Frankl also wrote about acceptance in his book - that one can find meaning in one's life even through accepting the unacceptable. I take his word for it, him being a man who has thoroughly lived this philosophy. 

According to Robert Greene, accepting whatever comes your way leads to nothing being able to truly hurt you - for, as he puts it, you are able to "turn shit into sugar." Like this person. 

I still dread the future, but I will endeavor to accept. I will be grateful for today; and I will be aware that things could have been worse, and yet they weren't. And if I find myself in a hole, I promise I will stop digging immediately and work hard to get out of it. Amen.

Your mistakes, like mine, are a part of who you are now. You can't move on from that. Believe me, I've made a sizable number. But...sometimes your mistakes can surprise you. My biggest mistake, for instance, brought me here. At exactly this moment when you might need some help.