To see all the things that happen to us as accidents or incidents from a novel, which we read not with our eyes but with life. Only with this attitude can we overcome the mischief of each day and the fickleness of events.
Fernando Pessoa. The Book of Disquiet, ch. 246
One of my favorite bar questions has always been: what filmmaker would you choose to direct your life story - or which author would write your life story? I suppose I wouldn't choose Pessoa because he'd never actually finish the job - and then they'd find all his Scudder-related pages in a big trunk decades later, and the papers would be in not logical order and others would have the power to organize them as they see fit. Of course, actually, that might be the best fit, all thins considered. Doubtless they would do a better job making sense of my life than I have. Now, the bigger question, at least as related to this passage, is how one should approach life. As Epictetus tells us, it's not the events that happen to you that matter, but instead your response to them.
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