An animal runs away from a predator.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The predator grabs it. The animal struggles and dies. It all happens in a short time. Until the last moment, there is little question of fate as far as the dying animal is concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Humans die much longer. They also yearn and suffer much longer. They know fate, which they may accept or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thinking about fate comes with thinking consciously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In all this, the only Compassionate stance feels to me the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fate must be free.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is, nobody should coerce anyone else to \u2018accept his fate.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n For instance, during a pandemic, the choice may be between either the protection of old people or the freedom of younger people to socialize. Here, the argument \u2018accept your fate\u2019 is no good argument, as it never is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, the choice needs to be made \u2015 here as in many other occasions in which people live together in a society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, tragedy exists.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This doesn\u2019t lie in the coercion to accept one\u2019s fate but in accepting that fate exists. It is part of the deal, part of the gift of consciousness that we received from nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It throws one out of a garden, but only as an illusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In reality, fate may be the most Compassionate issue<\/strong>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n but only in freedom. In coercion, there is no fate, but only coercion \u2015 as in \u201cYou must accept your fate.\u201d You see, what\u2019s the difference with \u201cYou must accept my coercion\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In free fate, there is the free choice to accept one\u2019s fate, as there is also the free choice to keep hoping, or Hoping. [see: \u201cAbout Hope<\/a>\u201d]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both may be immensely beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Accepting fate<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is what makes it beautiful to me. Then again, \u2018acceptance\u2019 in this is crucially challenging. [see: \u201cThe Tough Concept of \u2018Acceptance\u2019<\/a>\u201d]<\/p>\n\n\n\n For one thing, it is incompatible with \u2018making one accept something.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n It all hangs quite together, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, decisions need to be taken; policies need to be made.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Making them with Compassion makes a difference for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it possible to die with a smile?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it possible to postpone living with a smile?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Absolutely, and more: both are worth living and dying for.<\/p>\n