Page 12 - DINQ MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2020 EDITION

8 TIPS TO LIVE A BETTER LIFE

W adopting a radical, unconventional from his own. In the 1860s, he not

worldview that shocked his peers. So
only adopted peasant dress but began
e can learn a lot
working alongside the newly emanci-
how exactly might his personal jour-
pated labourers on his estate, plough-
ney help us rethink our own philoso-
about the art of liv-
ing from Tolstoy's

homes with his own hands. For a blue
War and Peace - a
1.Keep an open mind One of Tol-
blooded count, such actions were
10-hour dramatization of which is air- phies of life? ing the fields and repairing their
ing on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday. It stoy's greatest gifts was his ability and nothing short of remarkable. Alt-
acutely observes vanity and folly, sexu- willingness to change his mind based hough no doubt tinged with paternal-
al jealousy and family relationships. on new experiences. The horrific ism, he enjoyed the company of peas-
But we can also learn from the life of bloodshed he witnessed while ants and consciously shunned the
the master novelist himself, writes Ro- fighting in the Crimean War in the literary and aristocratic elite in the
man Krznaric. Tolstoy, who was born 1850s turned him into a lifelong paci- cities. Tolstoy believed you could
in 1828 and died in 1910, was a mem- fist. In 1857, after seeing a public ex- never understand the reality of other
ber of the Russian nobility, from a fam- ecution by guillotine in Paris - he people's lives unless you had a taste
ily that owned an estate and hundreds never forgot the thump of the severed of it yourself.
of serfs. The early life of the young head as it fell into the box below - he
count was raucous, debauched and vio- became a convinced opponent of the 3. Make a difference He also distin-
lent. "I killed men in wars and chal- state and its laws, believing that gov- guished himself from his upper class
lenged men to duels in order to kill ernments were not only brutal, but peers by taking practical action to
them," he wrote. "I lost at cards, con- essentially served the interests of the alleviate other people's suffering,
sumed the labour of the peasants, sen- rich and powerful. "The State is a most evident in his famine relief
tenced them to punishments, lived conspiracy," he wrote to a friend. work. After the crop failure of 1873,
"Henceforth, I Tolstoy stopped writing Anna
shall never Karenina for a year to organize aid
serve any gov- for the starving, remarking to a rela-
ernment any- tive: "I cannot tear myself away from
where." Tolstoy living creatures to bother about imag-
was on the road inary ones." His friends and family
to becoming an thought it was crazy for one of the
anarchist. He world's finest novelists to put one of
would be the his works of genius on the backburn-
first to encour- er. He did it again following the fam-
age us to ques- ine in 1891, spending two years
tion the funda- working in soup kitchens and fund-
mental beliefs raising. Can you imagine a bestsel-
and dogmas we ling author today setting aside their
have been latest book to do humanitarian relief
brought up work for two years?
with.
loosely, and deceived people… so I 4. Master the art of simple living Fol-
lived for ten years." But he gradually 2. Practice empathy Tolstoy displayed lowing a mental breakdown in the
weaned himself off his decadent, racy an unusual capacity to empathies by late 1870s, Tolstoy rejected all orga-
lifestyle and rejected the received be- stepping into the shoes of people nized religion, including the Ortho-
liefs of his aristocratic background, whose lives were vastly different
Continued on page 38

12 “ኢትዮጵያ ለዘላለም ትኑር ” ድንቅ መጽሔት - መስከረም 2012