War and Peace

Currently, I'm reading Tolstoy's "War and Peace." I'm hoping to finish it before I go to Russia, not for any big reason, but the pride I can have by bragging that I've read it and just because if I can't finish a book, even a 1400+ pager, in one summer I'd be a bit pathetic.

I'm only about 440 pages into it, which means I have 1000 more to go, but the last chapter I read was very interesting. One of the characters, Pierre, was being inducted into the Freemasons. What was interesting was that Tolstoy actually went through the whole ceremony. Now I just happen to be a Knight of Columbus, so reading about my "archrivals" induction ceremony was quite a treat. You should read it yourself, "War and Peace" pages 406 to 426, it was good, and as a knight I found it very amusing. Pardon me if I seem repetitious. Due to secrecy I can't really say anything about how the knights and masons compare, but I will say this. Assuming the ceremony was a correct representation of a mason ceremony, I'm glad I'm a knight and not a mason (um besides the whole excommunication thing). There is so much more meaning behind everything the knights do compared to the masons.

Still, I know the Knights guard our ceremonies' secrets closely, so I obviously can't be sure as to whether Tolstoy is right cause I don't know if he was a Freemason or if that would even matter. Either way, it was a fun read.