What is the connection between the actor Bill Murray and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche?
Subject: Amor Fati - Groundhog Day, The Movie
Event: Birthday of Bill Murray, 1950
Cease to fume at destiny by ever grumbling at today or lamenting over tomorrow. -Marcus Aurelius
What if there were no tomorrow? What if, instead, each day were the same day -- day after day ad infinitum. This is the premise of the 1993 film Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray, who was born on this day in 1950. In the film, Murray plays a self-consumed Pittsburgh weatherman who travels to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities. When he wakes the next morning, Connors discovers that it is not, in fact, the day after Groundhog Day; instead, it is once again February Second, Groundhog Day.
For the rest of the film, Phil struggles to cope and adapt to his fate, living the same day over and over. At first, he faces disbelief, then desperation, then decadence, and then depression. Finally, near the film’s end, he begins to embrace his fate and look beyond his own selfish desires. Rather than seeing each day as a living nightmare, Phil now sees each day as an opportunity to serve others.
When the film Groundhog Day first came out in 1993, most saw it as merely another entertaining romantic comedy; however, as it has aged, the film has become more and more a philosophical film. Could it be that the name of the main character Phil is meant to prime viewers to think about the classic ‘phil’osophical questions of life: What is the meaning of my life? How should I spend my time each day? What am I learning from my experiences each day?
As mentioned earlier, Phil Connors finally learns to embrace his fate rather than to curse his existence. Like Sisyphus, Phil cannot die and is stuck in the hell of repeating the same day over and over. Change comes for him, however, when he stops struggling against his fate and instead begins to focus on the things that he can control. As the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, a slave who faced much adversity himself, said, “Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happens the way it happens: then you will be happy” (1).
The Stoics called this mindset amor fati, the love of fate. It’s an acknowledgment that much of life consists of good and bad circumstances that are out of our control. What is in our control, however, is our thoughts, attitudes, and reactions to those life events. These thoughts are what allow us to make the best out of anything that happens.
One anecdote that illustrates the amor fati mindset comes from the life of the great American inventor Thomas Edison. On the evening of December 10, 1914, a chemical-fueled inferno engulfed his New Jersey invention factory. As Edison stood watching the conflagration, he calmly turned to his young son and said, “Go get your mother and all her friends. They’ll never see a fire like this again.”
Another philosopher who advocated amor fati was Friedrich Nietzsche: “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.”
Philosophy means “the love of wisdom.” In this sense, Groundhog Day is a true love story. Phil finds love through a relationship with a romantic partner; more importantly, however, he finds love through examining his own life, gaining wisdom, and embracing his fate.
Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: What is amor fati? Contrast what Phil’s life looked like before and after he embraced the amor fati philosophy?
Challenge - Thinking “Filmosophically”: Brainstorm a list of films that you would classify as philosophical, that is, films that help you reflect on the meaning of life or on the nature of reality (metaphysics) or truth (epistemology). Which one film on your list would you recommend most highly for its ability to get the audience to contemplate philosophical questions?
Also on This Day:
September 21, 1756: The Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdams was born on this day. McAdams’ revolutionary idea was to solve the problem of muddy and impassable roads by using layers of rock and gravel to raise the level of the road, making it more stable and less muddy. In his 2014 book Brain Rules, neuroscientist John Medina employs McAdams’ road innovation as an analogy for exercise. Just as the macadamization of roads gave people better access to goods and services, so too does exercise provide your body better access to the oxygen and food it needs to survive and thrive (3).
September 21, 1897: One of the most famous editorials ever written was published on this day. After 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the New York Sun asking to know the truth about Santa Claus, Francis Pharcellus Church wrote her editorial reply saying:
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to our life its highest beauty and joy. . . . Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. (5)
September 21, 1937: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit was published. Tolkien began the book in a rather unexpected way. As a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, Tolkien would augment his salary in the summers by marking School Certificate exams, a test taken by 16-year-olds in the United Kingdom. In a 1955 letter to the poet W.H. Auden, Tolkien recounted the moment that launched what was to become a classic in fantasy and children’s literature:
All I remember about the start of The Hobbit is sitting correcting School Certificate papers in the everlasting weariness of that annual task forced on impecunious academics with children. On the blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' I did not and do not know why (4).
September 21, 1947: Today is the birthday of the writer Stephen King, known best for his horror stories. He once said, “People think that I must be a very strange person. This is not correct. I have the heart of a small boy. It is in a glass jar on my desk.”
Sources:
1-Williams, Mary Elizabeth. “Lessons from ‘Groundhog Day’: More resonant than ever today.” Salon.com 2 Feb. 2018.
2-Muyskens, K.L. -
“What if There is No Tomorrow? There Wasn’t One Today.” Elephantjournal.com 2 Feb. 2015.
3-Medina, John. Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. Seattle, WA: Pear Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0979777707: 30.
5-”Text of ‘Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.’" www.cs.cmu.edu.
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