Fate and Freedom

The first rated R movie I ever saw in theaters was Terminator 2, in my humble opinion still one of the best sci fi action flicks around.  It was Arnold at his peak.  It was awesome metal man CGI before CGI festered into a cancer.  It was bad ass Sarah Connor.  And it had a quote that has resonated with me through the years: "There is no fate but what we make for ourselves."  It is very existentialist for a Hollywood movie.  And yet, is it true?  There are certainly forces greater than us that affect our choices, whether they are physical (gravity, etc.), geopolitical, or biological (genes, brain disorders, etc.).  Can we still make a fate for ourselves?

You always have choices with whatever fate you face, and that is your freedom.  As my dad has always told me, life ain't fair, but that leaves the question to all of us: "Well, what are you going to do about it?"  Albert Camus struggled with these issues of fate and freedom in his famous philosophical work The Myth of Sisyphus.  Sisyphus was a mythological character fated by the gods to eternally role a large boulder up a hill, only to see it roll down again.  Given that fate, what does Sisyphus do?  Camus used this example to delve into the absurd and our freedom in such circumstances.  Here is Camus's conclusion:

"I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain.  One always finds one's burden again.  But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks.  He too concludes that all is well.  This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile.  Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world.  The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart.  One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

In tough times, I take comfort in those words, letting the struggle itself fill my heart.  It is not a philosophy for the feint of heart, but it might be enough to grab fate by the reins and make it our own.