Still true today

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

I begin with a quote from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. First line in the first chapter.

I have not read the book but because it was told to me in the quiet dark recesses of the literature section of my JC library by a girl I use to know. I was just running my eyes along the aisle when this book caught my eye because the movie recently ended its run then and I had missed it.

So I push the book out and the girl said the quote above. I went huh?

That's the first line in the book.

At that point, I could have died and gone to nerd heaven. It was sexy in a very nerd-gratifying way. You just wanted to tear through ... the book. But I never.

I was so into W.H. Auden and T.S. Eliot and Sylvia Plath. W.H. Auden was born on the same day as I am and blimey, was born in York! T.S. Eliot was an anagram for "toilets" and the full name of Auden, Wystan Hugh Auden yielded "Hush, unwanted gay". Auden must be the most famous gay that shares my birthday. And that must have been the only reason I read him.

That event must have affected more than my loins because now whenever I hear of any happy or unhappy families, this is the quote that comes to mind immediately.

I have come to conclude that when a family is unhappy, there can be a million things to be unhappy about and each unhappy familiy can be as such for any combination of reasons.

It is when a family is happy, there is nothing to be unhappy about, hence there is that sameness in quality.

I often hear that we can choose our friends but we cannot choose our family (besides the wife).

But I think what is more important to note is that while we cannot choose our family, we can sure as hell choose how we treat each other in the family, in the wish to be treated the same way in return.

Tolstoy is a genius.