Prepare to Meet Everything

Day 228 of A Year of War and Peace

Marcel Proust once wrote that to know a thing does not always enable us to prevent it. This is a lesson Kutuzov learns today as it becomes known to him that there is no preventing Napoleon’s march into Moscow.

Kutuzov greets this news with initial disbelief. He’s slowly persuaded, however, after he takes counsel from a group of generals on the subject. As the generals discuss the issue Kutuzov grows more gloomy and preoccupied. He begins to worry. He worries about the fate of Russia as well as the fate of his command of the Russian army, a position he cherishes dearly.

No individual is immune from the ensnaring web of fate. Life is going to life. Perhaps, however, Proust is only half right. Knowing a thing does not always allow us to prevent it, sure. But knowing a thing does allow us to prepare for it. Clarissa Harlowe, a favorite of A Year of War and Peace, writes eloquently on the subject as she corresponds with her friend about how best to guard against the evil advances of the rake Robert Lovelace. Clarissa knows that Lovelace is up to something. She doesn’t know what exactly. She decides that her best defense is an anticipatory offense. “In a word,” she writes, “though hopeful of the best, I will always be fearful of the worst, in every thing that admits of doubt. For it is better, in such a situation as mine, to apprehend without cause, than to subject myself to surprise for want of aforethought.”

This is wisdom we all, Kutuzov included, can draw from. To keep Napoleon from your house, keep him always at your door.

DAILY MEDITATION