I ventured to project Gutenberg for at least a couple of reasons. My love of reading being the primary one, but there is yet another. This is where I would tangent, and what I love about hypertext! Well, my tangent is >HERE< and I can continue on with Alexander The Great.
Jacob Abbott is the author this and a few other books as well. I would say it’s a layman’s History of famous characters.
Alexander The Great is one of those famous men referred to, and I wanted to learn more about him, so I entered his name in Project Gutenberg’s search box.
The story of Bucephalus, Alexander The Great’s horse, is right at the beginning of the book to demonstrate the character of a man who would accomplish so much.
It was his ability to see past the apparent short comings of the animal. Also, he had the self confidence to disregard the opinion of those older and wiser than he. This is a common arrogance of young men and women. But it is such a necessary one.
A wise father will not be afraid of this in his children, but welcome it. It is the child thinking for himself, and learning to trust his own instincts.
I think a person with a strong self confidence is one who trusts his/her inner voice. This is obviously very important to me because I’ll always notice it in each and every book I read, if it’s there. There is a battle to be one, and it’s the spiritual I at war with the animal I, as Tolstoy puts it.
But another thing that moves me about this fellow Alexander is the answer to the question WHY did he do what he do?
My son in law, Andre, the husband of my youngest daughter, Cherish, is a psychologist. He told me it is a rule to never to ask a patient “why”. I had been helping a person whose life had fallen apart, and part of that process was to be with him in those moments of soul searching. I partly understand the reasons for not asking that question. But the most significant to me is that a person’s motivation can elude the person themselves.
Abbott depicts how driven Alexander was throughout his life. It wasn’t merely about world conquest, who would bite off such an enormous task? He was after the King of Persia, and when he finally held the dead, limp body of his vanquished foe in his arms, he wept.
This touched me because I had also understood this from the beginning of fighting to remain in the lives of my children. I remember the weekend I had to make up my mind to go to court and fight against my exwife for the right to see them.
I was sitting in the back of a community church, after the service while others were praying, each of us in our individual place. A lady came and asked me how she could pray for me. I had just finished writing down The Battle, so I handed it to her. She read it, and looked at me in horror and confusion.
Running Down Vimy 