Knowing When to Quit
Wednesday, March 29th, 2006Warning! Anna Karenina plot spoilers!
I’m reading Anna Karenina right now, just a few pages every night. I’m a little past half-way through, and I can’t but be touched with Tolstoy’s description of how a career ends:
Almost at the same time that his wife had left Karenin, the most painful thing that can befall an official - the cessation of his ascent in the Service - had befallen him. That cessation was an accomplished fact, clearly visible to everyone, though Karenin himself had no yet realized that his career was at an end…He still held an important post, was member of many Commissions and Committees, but he was finished, and from him nothing further was to be looked for. Whatever he might say, whatever he might propose, he was listened to as if all he was proposing had long been known and was what no one wanted. But Karenin was not sensible of this…
A shameful state to end up in. Hopefully I’ll know when my career ends, and hopefully I will not end so disgracefully.