Melbourne Journal #6: New Zealand and Fate

Last week, we visited Dunedin, New Zealand, our old home town. It was a surreal visit, bringing us back in time 8 years, when we lived there. And Dunedin is one of those towns that doesn't really change, which amplified the effect. 

For the few days prior to our week stay in Dunedin, we did a three day driving and camping tour, from Christchurch to Lake Tekapo, on to Wanaka, and then through central Otago to Dunedin. This is a spectacularly beautiful drive, but the tourism is at such a pitch these days that it feels like Glacier Park in summer, and is a bit too busy for my taste. 

I preferred our time in Dunedin, where I visited my colleague Colin Fox at the University of Otago. During our week there, we did some of our favorite bike rides and hikes, which were great to revisit, and we saw some old friends and haunts. But our entire stay was tinged with nostalgia and the feeling that Dunedin is our past not our future.

The topic of fate has come up more than once in recent conversations with Jen and my friend Al Parker. I have a strong sense of what Fate means for me but have realized that others recoil at the use of the word. This morning, I read Emerson's essay on Fate, and it fits my conception of it. 

WHAT I MEAN WHEN I SAY 'ACCEPT YOUR FATE'
wording in italics are from Emerson's essay Fate

We are human beings with the inborn limitations of our species: we only see certain wavelengths of light; we only hear certain frequencies of sound; we have a limited lifespan; etc. In addition, we have individual limits due to our genetic inheritance from our parents, and due to our culture: from that of our families outward to that of our country, the world, and our era. All of these limitations could be grouped under the term Nature, which also can act upon us in a random and vicious fashion. In Emerson's words,

Nature is no sentimentalist, does not cosset or pamper us. We must see that the world is rough and surly and will not mind drowning a man or a woman, but swallows your ship like a grain of dust.

It is the sum total of all of our limitations that defines our Fate. Indeed, according to Emerson, 'The book of Nature is the book of Fate.' But that is not all, as Fate is not fixed. Human beings are free, through acts of Will, to affect their Fate. Again, Emerson:

If you please to plant yourself on the side of Fate and say Fate is all; then we say, a part of Fate is the freedom of man. Forever wells up the impulse of choosing and acting in the Soul. Intellect annuls Fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free. 

This definition of Fate - which balances the restrictions placed on us by Nature with the ability to affect our Fate through acts of free will - agrees with my sensibilities. It is this definition of Fate that I use when I say 'accept your Fate.' Emerson puts it exceedingly well in the following quote.


We can afford to allow limitation if we know it is the meter of the growing man. We stand against Fate as children stand up against the wall in their father's house and notch their height from year to year. But when the boy grows to man, and is master of the house, he pulls down that wall and builds a new and bigger.