Peace and War

I am finishing the book, War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoi, this week. It's my third time reading it, but the only time within the last decade and I've missed many of the characters (specifically Pierre). When I read it in my teens, I craved the knowledge that Pierre sought in the world around him. The mystery of existence and of human nature were the only things that mattered. When I read it in my 20's, the purity of love that Natasha represented became my current obsession. Now, I am reading an earlier draft of Tolstoi's work and I am not sure what I am seeking this time. I am married, secure in a career, have a family (of pets), and am very comfortable with my place in the world. I think this time, many of the mysteries have been experienced or explained in my life and I am looking at the narrative from the outside in.

I still appreciate the detail of Tolstoi's historical interpretation of Napoleon and his invasion of Russia in 1812. In college, one of my history professors (Professor Michichi) had us explore the brief, but powerful analysis of Tolstoi by the great philosopher Isaiah Berlin, The Hedgehog and the Fox. Are we really prisoners of history, as Tolstoi describes? Is Bush as guiltless for the Iraq War as Napoleon was for invading Russia? I'm probably going to spend much of the summer thinking about these questions.