Stoicism, Amor Fati, and 2020

"My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it - but love it."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

This year was the year that I came across Stoicism for the first time and looking back, that has been such a blessing given the turbulent times that we have all gone through the last year.

Stoicism is an ancient philosophy formed around 304 BC in Athens when a merchant named Zeno was shipwrecked, in the process losing all of his possessions. From that misfortune, though, was born a philosophy that preached courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom.

It’s also referred to as “an ideal operating system for thriving in high-stress environments” according to Tim Ferriss. Environments that we are altogether used to in 2020.

And while Stoicism has many practical uses and sayings, something that I’ve been thinking about at the end of this year has been the stoic mantra of “Amor Fati” which can be best translated into “a love of fate”. As Nietzsche said not just to bear what has happened but to love it.

2020 has been a challenging year for us all, and we are still by no means over the events that have happened this year. A lot of us have lost family, some of us have lost jobs, and other things. We still don’t really know the long-term effects of this pandemic or the other political events of the year, but whatever happens, we need to come to terms with the past and make our peace with it.

And while it may take some time for us to end up loving this time, I’m going to venture to predict that in a couple of years most of us will look back on 2020, probably not with fondness but, paired with hindsight, more of an understanding of how the events of this year made us who we were meant to be.

In the wise words of Marcus Aurelius:

A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.