22.1.16
Pierre was right when he said that one must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy, and I now believe in it. Let the dead bury the dead, but while I’m alive, I must live and be happy.
From War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
The quotation I chose for my Daily Mail column this week will resonate with many readers. I wonder if you are watching ‘War and Peace’ on the BBC and enjoying it as much as we are? I get rather tired of the obvious comments – for example, that it is totally mad to compress such a novel into six episodes and that Andrew Davies has ‘sexed it up’ and that so much is missed out there’s no point in the enterprise. All wrong! It is quite obvious that six episodes cannot possible contain the heart and soul and full story of one of the greatest novels in the world – and so since it is so obvious, what is the point of bleating? Me – I would rather take what we have at face value – as a rattling good story, beautifully acted and filmed. What’s not to like?
I suggest that this can serve as a good maxim for life: Don’t bleat about what’s not there, just enjoy what IS.
Now, let me point out that I am one of those who has read Tolstoy’s novel – therefore I know what I am, talking about. I read War and Peace back in the 80s during the Cold War, opening my lovely little Oxford Classic volume (with very thin paper) as I was leaving London to meet my husband, Jonathan Dimbleby, in Bucharest where he was filming a series about the Cold War. I read it on the bus and the plane and then sat in cafes absorbed in the novel: then we travelled on to Vienna and because he was working I had plenty of time alone with my precious book. At the end of the trip I travelled all the way back from Vienna on the train alone – reading, then pausing to look out of the window, and feeling somewhat lonely and very melancholy, thinking about the wars Europe has seen.
I shall never forget that immense reading experience. Yet I can look forward to the BBC serial and take it at face value too. As far as I’m concerned, that is a double blessing.
And that is what Prince Andrei discovers (if not for long) – the blessing of simply being able to accept happiness. What’s more, this is happiness in the here-and-now – not in some promise of heaven OR a guilty wish to do good works OR an urge to be a better person. This is what is now called mindfulness: living in the moment and appreciating what is within that moment and allowing it to make you happy.
That’s all.
It really is that simple.
Live, love, laugh and be happy.
Look and appreciate.
Breathe and give thanks for that precious air in your lungs – because one day it will not be there anymore and you will enter the dark.
If this sounds like a car bumper sticker saying ‘DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY’ – then so be it. We can find wisdom in simplicity.