![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy wrote: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” I’ve never agreed with that and, frankly, it always bothered me that “happy families” were summarily dismissed as unimportant – or worse, boring. As someone from a happy family and someone who is currently part of a happy family, I don’t think we’re like anyone else at all.
Lately, however, I’ve started rethinking it. Perhaps being happy is so important that it is the only thing that matters. How you are happy isn’t important, being happy is. So all happy families are alike in the most basic, only meaningful way to be alike: They are happy.
Unhappy, on the other hand, is very complex and why you are unhappy is a very important thing. You can’t really move past unhappy without knowing that. People spend their lives trying to pin down the multitude of circumstances that made up an unhappy family.
It shouldn’t surprise me that Tolstoy had that wonderful insight into the human condition. His style is completely 19th century – and Russian to boot – but he is one of the “classics” for a reason.
So, instead of being offended that I’m “all alike”, I think I’ll just be happy… that I’m happy.
Lately, however, I’ve started rethinking it. Perhaps being happy is so important that it is the only thing that matters. How you are happy isn’t important, being happy is. So all happy families are alike in the most basic, only meaningful way to be alike: They are happy.
Unhappy, on the other hand, is very complex and why you are unhappy is a very important thing. You can’t really move past unhappy without knowing that. People spend their lives trying to pin down the multitude of circumstances that made up an unhappy family.
It shouldn’t surprise me that Tolstoy had that wonderful insight into the human condition. His style is completely 19th century – and Russian to boot – but he is one of the “classics” for a reason.
So, instead of being offended that I’m “all alike”, I think I’ll just be happy… that I’m happy.
