Update on Anna - I Gave In...

I broke my vow that I would not touch another book before finishing Anna Karenina. In a moment of weakness (and with the closing in of a deadline to return the book to my brother-in-law when he and his family come to visit in 2 weeks), I turned to David McCullough's biographical novel on Teddy Roosevelt, Mornings On Horseback. I have no regret or remorse taking a hiatus to enjoy this thoroughly wonderful book. It is an inspirational tale of an extraordinary family's chivalrous faith in selfless service, loyalty, righteousness, and courage; and how one man, with his enormous personality, lived out this vanquished way of heroism that is so pitifully underappreciated in modern times.

It is a very refreshing read for me personally, as I desire "heroic" things also. I think heroism in our post-modern (or post post-modern) times has taken on a bad name that speaks bully and hypocrisy. Truth, justice, and righteousness are archaic ideals that should be replaced by tolerance and relativism. Anyone who declares a "right" way of doing things is a fool and uncivilized. TR would have scorned such attitudes as sheer cowardice. And surely a coward would not have accomplished half, or if any, of his lasting achievements to his country and humanity.

A side note: in all serendipity, Anna Karenina, of all books, was mentioned in an anecdote in Mornings! The story told of an incident during TR's time in the Badlands, where three cowboys had stolen his boat. He and his two workers chased them down the river and caught on with them. TR arrested the thieves, settled them on a carriage to the nearest town to "deliver them to justice," while he himself walked the six-day journey, all at the same time finished reading Anna Karenina with great attention. According to TR, as he wrote to his sister Corinne in a letter two days after such a hike,

Tolstoy was truly a great writer...I found Anna curiously contradictory; bad as she was, however, she was not to me nearly as repulsive as her brother Stiva; Vronsky had some excellent points. I like poor Dolly - but she should have been less of a patient Griselda with her husband.

Well, I guess my unfinished old book is once again beckoning at me.