This postYou know, I have a feeling there’ll be a lot of Karamazovian posts over the next few weeks. :) Here’s one from 1.1.4, the second page of the chapter, which is describing Alyosha:
…he [Alyosha] certainly loved people: throughout his life he seemed to believe in people and trust them, and yet no one ever thought him simpleminded or naïve. There was something in him (and it stayed with him all his life) that made people realize that he refused to sit in judgment on others, that he felt he had no right to, and that, whatever happened, he would never condemn anyone.
Isn’t that wonderful? I can’t wait until the day I slip that description on and it actually fits. Someday… More and more — and I feel my consciousness of it has a lot to do with my being a writer, though I’m still not entirely sure how — I feel that I want to extinguish judgment from my soul, because in my experience it hasn’t done me a bit of good. It’s not essential to my safety or well-being, and it’s pure anathema to my happiness. Better to shed it and in its place don a nice skin of love.
Try to love your neighbors, love them actively and unceasingly. And as you learn to love them more and more, you will be more and more convinced of the existence of God and of the immortality of your soul. (From BK, 1.2.4.)
Beautiful! There’s a reason the greatest commandment of all is to love. Without it, we’re nothing.
