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"If we could only find the courage to leave our destiny to chance, to accept the fundamental mystery of our lives, then we might be closer to the sort of happiness that comes with innocence." -- Luis Bunuel (1900-1983)

(From the Quotation of the Day mailing list, 2003-11-01.)

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There are 5 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

Bleah! Bleah! Bleah! Bleah! Bleah!
How many times in our lives have we been encrufted and epoxied to our own chairs by passivity, watching every good thing we had inside us just trickle down the crapper? How many friends do we get to watch become slowly paralyzed from the heart out and not even resisting this gloopy dysfunction before someone finally believes that this is no way to LIVE?
Bleah!
"Happiness that comes with innocence" my ass! More like the "courage.." to give up.
No thanks!
Bleah!
There are times when finding one's Destiny means to stop resisting it.
But to "leave our destiny to chance" is phrase that far far too many people are gonna take to heart to mean that it's okay to sit and slowly ossify in front of (whatever) waiting for the doorbell or the phone to ring.
Bleah!
See also: "Feh!" and "Ewww!"

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That's not how I interpret what he said. If destiny is the part of our lives we can't control, what can we do but leave *it* to chance? That doesn't mean that we have to be passive about our interaction with it. I accept that some of what will happen to me in my life *is* beyond my control ... but I can still choose how to anticipate and respond. I think it's a healthy thing to realize that waves will come no matter what I do, and learn to watch for and ride the waves as best I can, or duck under them sometimes. Sometimes I'm gonna get pounded. I can still enjoy living in this world.

A minor example: I used to worry a lot more about what I write, because I knew I would be judged to an extent on that. However, it took me a long time to learn that I couldn't *control* how others would read what I wrote. Some folks would still (sometimes willfully) misread me, no matter how much care I took. Nowadays I still take care with my writing in general, but I don't *worry* about it as much, and my writing is more playful sometimes. I think that's good for me AND good for my readers.

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Yes, but....

I too agree that one of the essential elements of finding one's Destiny and one's niche, even is to keep yourself open to the possibility or attentive to the voice of Fate, etc.

But this quote, I believe, goes too far. Also I rail against it because it too many people, too many of whom are in my personal acquaintance have adopted a really dysfunctional aspect of "passivity" and use a truckload of sad excuses, including quotes like these as some sort of rationalisation. You are not one of these people and I have come to know that you would never succumb to something so lame. But too many, far too many are just waiting around for the bell to ring and letting themselves be enslaved when it does.

The implications of this quote, based on the wording I picked on, sound to me a whole lot more like "passive" than "receptive".

Grounding and centering yourself and your life so that you can percieve the currents and work with them instead of struggling against them is NOT the same as "leaving your destiny to chance".

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