15 May 2011

With a chilly wind blowing and an overcast sky, I deferred yet again venturing out in my electric wheelchair. As a result I spent some part of the day ,at last getting to the end of Anna Karenina and am no less impressed than I was when I last made mention of this book Anna Karenina herself is a sad subplot and, like so many modern films, the book has several stories going on at the same time, but what impressed me was the way that every now and then Tolstoy branched out into some deep philosophical discussion.. For example, towards the end of the book he devotes a whole chapters to Levin’s personal battle in desperately trying to believe in God whilst all along rationalising against God’s existence and poses a number of questions with which I have personally struggled. Apart from going through all my unanswered questions about infinity, may question the existence of God, he interestingly concludes ‘… If the chief proof of the Divinity was His revelation of what is right, how is it that this revelation is confined to the Christian church alone? What relation to this revelation and the beliefs of Buddhists, Mohammedans, (Jews) who preached and are good too?’………Can these hundreds of millions of men be deprived of the blessing without which life has no meaning? (And what about the millions of people who lived before Christ, are they not too to be admitted to the Kingdom of Heaven?)

A little further on towards the end of the book there’s a whole section on the morality of going to war. Not so much one race or religion against another but the situation where innocent children, women and old people are being massacred. Tolstoy asks can we really stand by and ignore such a thing? – shades of Libya today!. 

A thoroughly fascinating and thought provoking book which was well worth while re-reading.

After all this excitement I needed two attempts to get up out of my chair and onto my frame at 9.30 with Alice & Sam assisting. I really thought we were going to have to use a hoist but I expect it was just the panic I feel when I don’t make it first-time.