RE-BROADCAST – At Christmas Time by Anton Chekhov w/Jesan Sorrells

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So I just wanted to let you know that what you’re listening here today is

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a rebroadcast of a previously posted

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episode of the Leadership Lessons from the Great Books podcast.

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No new episode today, but enjoy this rebroadcast

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because listening to a rebroadcast of the Leadership

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Lessons from the Great Books podcast is still better

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than reading and trying to understand yet another business

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book. Hello, my name is Jesan

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Sorrells and this is the Leadership Lessons from the Great Books podcast,

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episode number 88

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with our very short story today. A very brief

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character study of peasants and their lives,

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both on the Russian steppes and in Russian

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cities, is an examination of the reality

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of their lives, juxtaposed against the Christian

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cultural narrative, particularly the Russian Orthodox Christian

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cultural narrative of Christmas, a story

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written by the Russian playwright and short story writer

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who trained and practiced medicine among the very peasants

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about whom he wrote so brilliantly. We are going to be

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covering today Anton Chekhov’s very short story

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At Christmas Time. Leaders

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have a vision of the future at the end of the year,

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rather than continuing to flagellate in navel gazing

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abstraction about sins and

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transgressions.

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Vasilisa had not seen her for years. Her daughter Yefimaya.

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And gone after her wedding to Petersburg, had sent them two letters, and since then

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seemed to vanish out of their lives. There had been no sight or nor

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sound of her, and whether the old woman were milking her cow at dawn, or

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heating her stove, or dozing at night, she was always thinking of one and the

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same thing. What was happening to Yefimaya, whether she were

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alive out yonder? She ought to have sent a letter, but the

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old father could not write, and there was no one to

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write. But now Christmas had come and

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Vasilissa could not bear it any longer, and went to the tavern to

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Yegor, the brother of the innkeeper’s wife, who had sat in the tavern doing

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nothing ever since he came back from the army. People said that he could write

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letters very well if he were properly paid. Vasilissa

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talked to the cook at the tavern, then to the mistress of the house, then

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to Yegor himself. They agreed upon 15

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kopecks, and now it happened on the second day of

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the holidays in the tavern kitchen. Yegor was sitting at the table, holding a pen

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in his hand. Vasilissa was standing before him,

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pondering with an expression of anxiety and woe on her face.

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Piotr, her husband, a very thin old man with a brownish bald

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patch, had come with her. He stood looking straight before him like a blind man.

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On the stove a piece of pork was being braised in a saucepan. It was

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spurting and hissing, and it seemed to be actually saying.

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It was stifling. What am I to write?

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Yegor asked again. What? Asked Vasilissa, looking at him

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angrily and suspiciously. Don’t worry me. You are not writing for nothing. No fear,

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you’ll be paid for it. Come, write. To our dear son in

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law, Andre Harasinevich, and to our beloved, only

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beloved daughter, Yefimaya Petrovna, with our love we send

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a low bow and our parental blessing abiding forever

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written fire away. And we wish them a happy

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Christmas. We are alive and well. And I wish you the same, please the Lord,

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the Heavenly King. Vasilissa pondered and exchanged

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glances with the old man. And I wish you the same, please

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the Lord, heavenly King, she repeated, beginning to cry.

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She could say nothing more. And yet before, when she lay awake thinking at night,

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it had seemed to her that she could not get all she had to say

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into a dozen letters. Since the time when her daughter had gone away with her

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husband, much water had flowed into the sea. The old people had lived feeling

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bereaved and sighed heavily at night as though they had buried their daughter.

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And how many events had occurred in the village since then, how many marriages and

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deaths, how long the winters had been, how long the nights?

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It’s hot, said Jaegor, unbuttoning his waistcoat. It must be

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70 degrees. What more? He asked.

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The old people were silent.

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So our book here, our short story, very short story, it’s

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only like five pages that we’re going to be covering here at the

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end of our Christmas season

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of shows. Or maybe not the end. It’s the beginning actually, of the

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Christmas season of shows, because on this podcast we’re having come up

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next, the Christmas Carol, we’re going to be covering that

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rebroadcast from last year and we’ll have a couple of Christmas

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messages in our shorts episodes, as well as

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a reading on Christmas Day from the Book of Luke,

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which I think is very important for reminding us all what

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the actual reason for the season is.

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And it ain’t Santa anyhow,

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when we read At Christmas Time by Anton Chekhov. And by the way,

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we covered Anton Chekhov and we covered three of his

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short stories in episode number 14 in

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season one, published back on April

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13, 2022, so you can go back and listen to that.

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And we talked a lot in that episode about the

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nature of Chekhov’s writing and the nature of how

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Chekhov fits as a writer into the

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pantheon of Russian authors, including Dostoevsky,

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Leo Tolstoy and others. Anton Chekov,

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as was mentioned in that episode, and I mentioned it briefly here in the opener,

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wrote about the people that he actually helped. He was a medical

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doctor, and he spent a lot of time outside

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of the major city centers in Russia. And just

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like in any other country, there are things that are happening in the country

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and there are things that are happening in the cities. And

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in Russia, particularly during the time of serfdom,

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the illiterate peasant was an individual that Chekhov would

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have often run across.

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We take for granted that people will be literate in our society

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and culture. We take for granted that people will be able to read. Now, there

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is illiteracy even in our own culture.

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And of course, more troubling for us is a lack of comprehension,

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a lack of understanding of what you’re reading. Yeah, you can read the

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words on the page, but you don’t actually know what they mean.

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That’s far more of a problem in the year of our Lord

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2023 than the actual act of, or the actual

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fact of illiteracy, which was a huge problem in Russia

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because serfs and peasants alike, and many

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peasants who were maybe a little bit above

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serfs, could not read well. And

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what that meant was that communication.

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And meaning and existence were all floated together.

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Right. So if you couldn’t communicate with an individual, a person

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dropped off the face of the planet. As the

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mother Vasilisa points out in that clip there,

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the mother, she had no concept that her daughter was

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still alive. Communication or even

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a lack of communication was seen

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as a way of maintaining a lifeline. And when that communication was

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cut off, as we will see later on in the story, when that communication

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was interrupted, existence itself

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ended. Now, there’s another piece to pick up

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here in this first part of At Christmas Time

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that I think is hugely important, particularly for our end of

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the year considerations with us, you know, reading

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this story at Christmas time during the Christmas holiday season.

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The patriarch of this story. And this is another

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sort of juxtaposition that Chekhov played

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with. The patriarch in this situation

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initially seems to be the husband, and the husband

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is blind. The husband can’t

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see, and the matriarch is illiterate.

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There’s a comment here or commentary here that’s being

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made about the nature of reality

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and how illiteracy and blindness meet

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at the end of the year to write

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a letter that will hopefully bring

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reconciliation.

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Back to the book, back to At Christmas Time

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by Anton Chekhov. So we’re going to move ahead in the story a little bit,

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go to our next page and read a

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couple of pieces here.

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Here it is, written down to the old woman taking the letter out of her

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pocket. We got it from Yefimaya. Goodness knows when. Maybe

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they are no longer in this world.

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Jaegor thought a little and began writing rapidly. At the present time,

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he wrote, since your destiny, through your own doing, allotted you to the military career,

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we counsel you to look to the code of disciplinary offenses and fundamental laws of

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the War Office, and you will see in that law the civilization of the officials

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of the War Office. He wrote and kept reading aloud what was

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written, while Vasilisa considered what she ought to write.

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How great had been their want the year before, how their corn had not lasted

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even till Christmas, how they had to sell their cow.

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She ought to ask for money, ought to write that the old father was often

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ailing and would soon no doubt give up his soul to God.

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But how to express this in words? What must be said first and

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what afterwards? Take note, Jaegor went on

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writing in volume five of the army regulations. Soldier is a common noun and a

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proper one. A soldier of the first rank is called a general, and of the

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last a private. The old man stirred his lips and

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said softly, it would be all right to have a look at the grandchildren.

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What grandchildren? Asked the old woman, and she looked

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angrily at him. Perhaps there are none. Well, but perhaps there

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are. Who knows? And thereby you can judge. Jaeger

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hurried on. What is the enemy without and what is the enemy within? The foremost

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of our enemy with our of our enemies within is Bacchus. The

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pen squeaked, executing upon the paper flourishes

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like fish hooks. Jaegor hastened and read over every line. Several

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times he sat on his stool, sprawling his broad feet under the table,

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well fed, bursting with health, with a coarse animal face and a

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red bull neck. He was vulgarity itself,

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coarse, conceited, invincible, proud of having been born and bred in a

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pothouse. And Vasilisa quite understood the vulgarity, but could not express

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it in words, and could only look angrily and suspiciously

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at Jaeger. Her head was beginning to ache and her thoughts

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were in confusion from the sound of his voice and his unintelligible words, from the

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heat and the stuffiness. And she said nothing and thought nothing, but simply waited for

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him to finish scribbling. But the old man looked with full

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confidence. He believed in his old woman who brought him there and in

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Yegor. And when he had mentioned the hydropathic establishment, it

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could be seen that he believed in the establishment and the healing efficacy

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of water. Having finished the letter,

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Jaeger got up and read the whole of it through from the beginning. The old

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man did not understand, but he nodded his head trustfully. That’s all

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right. It is smooth, he said. God give you health. That’s all right.

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They laid on the table three five kopeck pieces and went out of the

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tavern. The old man looked immovably straight before him, as though

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he were blind and perfect trustfulness was written on his

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face. But as Vassila came out of the

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tavern, she waved angrily at the dog and said angrily,

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ugh, the plague.

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Sam.

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So you’ve got three male characters

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in At Christmas Time by Anton Chekhov,

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and they all represent three different faces of

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the patriarchy, right? And

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so we’re going to explore. I’m going to talk a little bit about all

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three of those faces here. So

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we’ve got Jaeger, right,

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who writes a letter that is supposed to

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be. Well, it’s supposed to be dictating a letter, supposed to be

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writing down what other people are saying, and yet

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goes off script, right? And he goes off script when

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he finds out that Andre, who is the old

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couple’s, in essence, son-in-law, works at a

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hydropathic establishment in Petersburg

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and left the army as a. Or left the

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service, sorry, as a soldier. Once Jaeger connects on

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to that, then he sort of writes his own letter to

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Andrew. Now he’s a tyrannical male because he’s

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vulgar, right? Even in Anton Chekhov’s description of him, he points

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to his vulgarity. He points to his

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lack of leadership. His lack of social.

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Savoir faire, right? His. His ways. He puts his feet

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up and the way he handles himself. But he is the one, of course, who

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can only write.

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In a town full of illiterates, the vulgar man is king.

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Then you’ve got Andre, who we’ll meet later on in a little bit

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here. And I’m not going to talk too much about him yet. I’m going to

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kind of let him unfold in part two of the story. And of course you

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have the blind father who we just talked about, and

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that’s three different conceptions here where

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these patriarchs, these men in a highly patriarchal

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society have power, and yet they behave in

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manners that are not honoring of that power. And

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via doing that or the ways in which they do that

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impacts and it controls and it creates

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fear. And suspicion and anger

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and pride and ignorance in others.

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This is a theme that weaves through most of

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Anton Chekhov’s writing. Most of Anton Chekhov’s

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short stories follow this sort of path.

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When he writes about. Well, when he writes about male

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peasants, when he writes about individuals who are not kings

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of the country, they’re not czars, they don’t rule

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their own country, but they do rule with a

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blind, iron fist, their own households. And of course, that

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blindness leads them to be tyrannical, and of course that tyranny

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leads to rebellion. And then of course, the rebellion

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leads to a tightening of the fist, and so on and so

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on and so on. And we in the west, particularly us in

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America, who come from a little bit of a different understanding of

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how patriarchal power should be meted out and how leadership should be meted

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out, usually fail to understand how strong men work in

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Russia. But when you read Chekhov’s writing and when you read

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about how the peasants and the serfs, the history of.

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The history of male and female relationships as

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navigated through short stories and novels, and as

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demonstrated through short stories and novels, when you read about all that,

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you begin to get an inkling of an understanding of exactly

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the tragic nature of this cycle. And you see some of this

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in At Christmas Time. The old woman

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has agency, but her agency is incredibly

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limited. And it’s limited by the blind and

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tyrannical patriarchs that are all around.

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Back to the book, back to At Christmas Time

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by Anton Chekhov. So we’re going to. We’re going to pick up

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with part two a little bit here. We’re going to

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read just a couple of paragraphs from, from part two, just to

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kind of get the flavor. And then we’re going to turn the corner and start

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to close here. By the way, one of the points I

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want to make about Andre, the, the. The

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brother. I’m sorry, the brother. The son in law

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of, Of Fecila. And,

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and. And the blind. The blind father there,

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Piotr. So Andre

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worked at what was called a hydropathic establishment. And

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I had to look this up because I really didn’t know anything about this. This

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is kind of interesting. Apparently there was an

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idea in, in Russia in the late

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19th century that water could be a

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curative or had curative impact, had curative

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effect on a human being, on an individual,

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on disease. Right. And on

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the. The aspects of disease that were deleterious to a

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human being. Well, that,

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that led to the creation of hydropathic

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establishments. Right. And this is Critically important as a tip,

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because. Or not as a tip, but as an indication of sort of where

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we’re going with this. And by the way, in Christian religion,

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water is considered to be

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purifying, right? But it is also seen

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as a tool or as a symbol of

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uniting and unifying. You know,

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baptism is hugely important from the time of John the Baptist, baptizing

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Jesus in order to begin his public ministry.

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And baptism, particularly in Protestantism, but even more

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so in Orthodox, Catholic, Christian

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rites and sects, baptism is hugely important for

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sealing a person, sealing a soul, and

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in confirming as an outward sign to the community.

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This is how it’s taken in Protestant religions, as an outward sign to the

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community of sacred salvation, right of Jesus’s inner work.

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And the baptism is an external. An external

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demonstration of that internal work. And so water,

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water as a cure for what physically ails, but water also is a

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cure for what spiritually ails, is one of the themes here that

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Chekhov is trying to get to in At Christmas Time.

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Okay, back to the book, back to At Christmas

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Time and pick up with part two here. Dr. Bo

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Mazelweiser’s hydropathic establishment worked on

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New Year’s Day exactly as on ordinary days. The only difference was that the

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porter Andre has Ranovich had on a uniform with new

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braiding, his boots had an extra polish, and he greeted every visitor with a Happy

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New Year to you. It was the morning Andre

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Hasranovich was standing at the door, reading the newspaper. Just at 10 o’ clock

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there arrived a general, one of the habitual visitors, and directly

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after him the postman Andrei Haresinovich helped the general

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off of his greatcoat and said, a happy New Year to you, your excellency.

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Thank you, my good fellow, the same to you. And at the top of the

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stairs, the general asked, nodding towards the door. He asked the same question every day

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and always forgot the answer. And what is there in that room?

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The massage room, your excellency. When the general’s steps had

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died away, Andrei Hrasevich looked at the post that had come and found

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one addressed to himself. He tore it open, read

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several lines. Then, looking at the newspaper, he walked without

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haste to his own room, which was downstairs, close

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by. At the end of the passage, his wife Yefimya was

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sitting on the bed, feeding her baby. Another child, the eldest, was standing

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by, laying its curly head on her knee. A third was asleep

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on the bed. And, and the communication choke point there is Andre. Remember what I

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said about there being tyrannical patriarchs, right? Well, this is a very specific form of

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tyranny on Andre’s part. It is not the tyranny. And you’ll see this later on

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one of the other shoe drops here in the moment. But it’s not a tyranny

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of neglect from a material level. Right? He’s got a job, he’s working in a

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hydropathic establishment. The general comes in, he’s working on New Year’s Day, which by the

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way, in Russian Orthodox Christianity, Christmas comes not on December 25th, Christmas comes on January.

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I believe it’s January 6th, it’s January 6th or January 12th, I believe it’s January

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6th.

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So the old woman got her Hus, got her daughter

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married to a man who

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totally and completely ignored her

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three children in a nursery.

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And, and the communication

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choke point there is Andre.

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Remember what I said about there being tyrannical

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patriarchs, Right? Well, this is a very specific form of tyranny on

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Andre’s part. It is not the tyranny. And you’ll see this later

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on one of the other shoe drops here in the moment.

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But it’s not a tyranny of neglect from a

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material level. Right? He’s got a job, he’s working in a

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hydropathic establishment. The general comes in, he’s working on New Year’s Day,

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which by the way, in, in Russian

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Orthodox Christianity, Christmas comes not on

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December 25th, Christmas comes on January. I believe it’s

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January 6th, it’s January 6th or January 12th, I believe it’s January 6th.

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And so in Orthodox Christianity,

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just as in traditional Catholicism, going all

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the way back to, oh gosh, I mean, I

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mean, Christmas didn’t really start being celebrated until after

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Constantine in the year. Oh gosh, in the year like

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360, 380 something AD

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and then it started slowly ramping up, but really didn’t kick off

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into what we know as modern Christmas until

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the latter part of the.

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17Th and, and the latter part of the 17th and the

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early part of the. The 18th century. And then with the

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rise of industrialism and consumer culture, all of which trans. Charles Dickens

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bemoaned, by the way. You’ll hear that in the Christmas Carol.

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You know, then we get into a more modern conception of what

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Christmas is and Christmas celebrations and things like Santa and the

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tree and all of that came, came way late. But

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traditional Christendom, traditional

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Orthodox understanding of Christmas, a traditional Orthodox

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understanding Christmas puts Christmas after the New Year,

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which is interesting for us because, you know, we put Thanksgiving and then

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Christmas, then the New Year, in that order. And of course, in

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Orthodox Christianity and in many other parts of the world,

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you know, the last Thursday in November means nothing. What means a lot

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is New Year’s Day. And what means a lot is

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of course, Christmas Day.

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Now, where that falls and why that falls after New Year’s is

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interesting background information. But what’s more interesting on the, when you think about Tom

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is he is merely doing his work as he’s

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supposed to be doing it. He’s checking all the boxes.

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Many leaders, by the way, do this. And I know this is a leadership podcast

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and we are focused on literature here at the end of the year.

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But the leadership aspects of this are very important. So as a leader,

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if you’re just focused on checking the boxes and you’re not nourishing the emotional

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or psychological life of your followers, you’re

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probably just barely feeding them. And you

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probably have a poverty of imagination now on the

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part of the daughter.

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The daughter got a husband, right? And the old woman got her daughter

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married off. But they both didn’t get a reprieve from

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tyranny.

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Jaegor got his literacy, we talked about that in the

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military. And Andre got his hydropathic career

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after leaving the army. But they both. Neither of them

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got a reprieve from tyranny either. The

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tyrannical nature of rulership, the

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tyrannical nature of the peasant reality is something that needs to be

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reconciled. It’s something that needs to be solved, and it’s something that needs to

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be examined. And Chekhov’s critique

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of Orthodox Christian society, fundamentally because

400
00:27:24,700 –> 00:27:27,900
he came from a medical background, because he was writing

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00:27:28,530 –> 00:27:31,650
in the mid to latter part of the

402
00:27:32,770 –> 00:27:36,530
19th century in a Russia that was transitioning

403
00:27:36,530 –> 00:27:40,370
into something else, transitioning into a new thing

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00:27:40,610 –> 00:27:44,370
in the maelstrom of European understanding

405
00:27:44,370 –> 00:27:47,090
in a post Napoleon world.

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00:27:48,690 –> 00:27:51,890
Well, Chekhov’s critique of Orthodox Christian society

407
00:27:52,370 –> 00:27:56,160
fundamentally is nihilistic in its examination in this

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00:27:56,160 –> 00:27:59,160
story. But. But

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00:28:00,440 –> 00:28:04,160
unlike Friedrich Nietzsche, Chekhov holds

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00:28:04,160 –> 00:28:07,560
on to the slim hope that Jesus

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00:28:08,520 –> 00:28:11,800
might still have a place in the season.

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Back to the story. We’re gonna wrap up here. Back to

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00:28:34,130 –> 00:28:37,970
At Christmas Time by Anton Chekhov. We’re going to turn the corner

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00:28:37,970 –> 00:28:41,810
here and wrap up. Andre just gave

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her the letter. As she was sitting.

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Yehamaya, as she was sitting on the bed.

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He could hear Yefimaya with a shaking voice, reading the first lines.

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00:28:53,240 –> 00:28:56,880
She read them and could read no more. These lines were enough for

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00:28:56,880 –> 00:29:00,640
her. She burst into tears and hugging her eldest child, kissing

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00:29:00,640 –> 00:29:04,440
him, she began saying, and it was hard to say whether she was

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00:29:04,440 –> 00:29:08,000
laughing or crying. It’s from Granny, from

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00:29:08,000 –> 00:29:11,720
grandfather, she said, from the country. The heavenly mother. Saints and

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00:29:11,720 –> 00:29:15,520
martyrs. The snow lies heaped up under the roofs now. The trees are as white

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00:29:15,520 –> 00:29:19,220
as white. The boys slide in on little sledges. And dear old bald

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00:29:19,220 –> 00:29:22,740
grandfather is on the stove. And there is a little yellow dog. My own darlings.

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Andrei Rasinovich, hearing this, recalled that his

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00:29:27,700 –> 00:29:31,500
wife had on three or four occasions given him letters and asked

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00:29:31,500 –> 00:29:35,140
him to send them to the country. But some important business had always

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00:29:35,140 –> 00:29:38,700
prevented him. He had not sent them, and the

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00:29:38,700 –> 00:29:42,460
letters somehow got lost. And little

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00:29:42,460 –> 00:29:46,060
hares run about in the fields. Yefimaya went on chanting, kissing her boy and

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00:29:46,060 –> 00:29:49,600
shedding tears. Grandfather is kind and gentle. Granny is good too. Kind

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00:29:49,600 –> 00:29:53,120
hearted. They are warm hearted in the country, they are God fearing. And there is

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00:29:53,120 –> 00:29:56,080
a little church in the village. The peasants sing in the choir. Queen of Heaven,

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00:29:56,080 –> 00:29:59,720
Holy Mother and Defender, take us away from here. Andre

436
00:29:59,720 –> 00:30:03,480
Harosanovich returned to his room to smoke a little, till there

437
00:30:03,480 –> 00:30:07,160
was another ring at the door and Yefimaya ceased speaking, subsided and

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00:30:07,160 –> 00:30:10,080
wiped her eyes, though her lips were still quivering.

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00:30:10,800 –> 00:30:14,590
She was very much frightened of him. Oh, how frightened of him. She

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00:30:14,590 –> 00:30:17,750
trembled and was reduced to terror by the sound of his steps, by the look

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00:30:17,750 –> 00:30:20,750
in his eyes, and dared not utter a word in his presence.

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00:30:22,430 –> 00:30:26,190
Andrei Harasanovich lighted a cigarette,

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but at that very moment there was a ring from upstairs. He put

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00:30:30,870 –> 00:30:34,630
out his cigarette and, assuming a very grave face, hastened to his front

445
00:30:34,630 –> 00:30:38,030
door. The general was coming downstairs, fresh and

446
00:30:38,030 –> 00:30:41,810
rosy from his bath. And what is there in that

447
00:30:41,810 –> 00:30:45,370
room? He asked, pointing to a door. Andrey

448
00:30:45,370 –> 00:30:49,010
Harasenovich put his hands down swiftly to the seams of his trousers and

449
00:30:49,010 –> 00:30:52,290
pronounced loudly, char Kadouche. Your

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00:30:52,290 –> 00:30:53,050
Excellency.

451
00:31:28,900 –> 00:31:32,610
Gotta admit, when I got to the end of that, I had no, no idea

452
00:31:33,010 –> 00:31:36,530
what charcoal douche meant, so I had to go look that up.

453
00:31:37,570 –> 00:31:40,890
So the last lines of At Christmas Time by Anton

454
00:31:40,890 –> 00:31:44,370
Chekov. Really

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00:31:44,370 –> 00:31:47,570
are focused around and really are.

456
00:31:49,570 –> 00:31:53,090
Sort of indicative of the. And, and,

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00:31:53,090 –> 00:31:56,770
and, and, and, and, and hearkening back to

458
00:31:56,770 –> 00:32:00,520
this idea of hydro pathy,

459
00:32:00,520 –> 00:32:02,840
right, this idea of a water cure.

460
00:32:05,160 –> 00:32:08,920
Shark o douche. And I have a link to the

461
00:32:08,920 –> 00:32:12,640
definition of what it is when in inside

462
00:32:12,640 –> 00:32:15,560
of Anton Chekhov’s short story At Christmas Time

463
00:32:15,960 –> 00:32:19,800
basically is. It’s a, it’s a, it’s a

464
00:32:19,880 –> 00:32:23,680
French. It’S a

465
00:32:23,680 –> 00:32:27,040
French term, right, that

466
00:32:27,200 –> 00:32:30,840
it was a type of high-pressure shower that was

467
00:32:30,840 –> 00:32:34,200
invented by a French neurologist named Jean Martin

468
00:32:34,200 –> 00:32:37,960
Charcot. And it was initially used as a medical device.

469
00:32:37,960 –> 00:32:41,680
It was called a Charcot shower. And it was,

470
00:32:42,160 –> 00:32:45,680
it was, it was, it was used

471
00:32:45,680 –> 00:32:49,280
in spas in the late 19th and in the early 20th

472
00:32:49,280 –> 00:32:51,360
century in order to.

473
00:32:53,470 –> 00:32:57,150
Have order to create a massage, you know, over the patient’s body.

474
00:32:58,190 –> 00:33:01,950
And it was so powerful with,

475
00:33:02,270 –> 00:33:06,070
and was operated at such a high pressure that it almost, it could

476
00:33:06,070 –> 00:33:09,790
sometimes cause hematoma on the patient or in the individual

477
00:33:09,790 –> 00:33:13,470
who was doing that and who was using it. So high-pressure

478
00:33:13,470 –> 00:33:17,070
on a shower head, you know, coming out of that. And so basically

479
00:33:17,310 –> 00:33:20,840
what, you know, Andre is saying

480
00:33:21,240 –> 00:33:24,760
at the end of this story is that,

481
00:33:25,800 –> 00:33:29,520
you know. You know, the,

482
00:33:29,520 –> 00:33:33,160
the thing that’s behind the door is a restorative bath, right?

483
00:33:34,600 –> 00:33:38,400
But it could also indicate, and there’s many different ideas of this

484
00:33:38,400 –> 00:33:41,560
floating around on the Internet. I’m not the first person to say this, but

485
00:33:42,600 –> 00:33:46,290
it could also indicate that Chekhov is looking for that

486
00:33:46,290 –> 00:33:50,090
hope, right? That hope of healing and restoration between

487
00:33:50,090 –> 00:33:53,530
the daughter and the parents, between

488
00:33:53,770 –> 00:33:57,450
what is in the country and what is in the city,

489
00:33:57,930 –> 00:34:01,650
between the sophisticated folks that are now

490
00:34:01,650 –> 00:34:05,050
living in St. Petersburg and the hillbilly hicks

491
00:34:05,450 –> 00:34:08,570
that are out on the steps in

492
00:34:08,730 –> 00:34:10,100
Russia.

493
00:34:53,870 –> 00:34:57,710
When we think about this short story at Christmas time,

494
00:34:57,710 –> 00:35:01,470
and when we think about the restoration

495
00:35:02,270 –> 00:35:05,990
of relationship, leaders engage in healing and

496
00:35:05,990 –> 00:35:09,470
restorative work. Leaders avoid tyranny. And

497
00:35:09,790 –> 00:35:13,390
of course they need to be literate to write and see and comprehend.

498
00:35:14,190 –> 00:35:18,030
But even more so than this, at the end of this

499
00:35:18,030 –> 00:35:21,870
year, at the end of any year, we

500
00:35:21,870 –> 00:35:25,150
would encourage you to think about

501
00:35:25,790 –> 00:35:29,610
what is the cost of introspection? What is the cost

502
00:35:29,610 –> 00:35:33,410
of looking backward? Who are you bringing forward

503
00:35:34,130 –> 00:35:37,570
in order to restore them and restore relationship,

504
00:35:37,810 –> 00:35:40,850
in order to engage in acts of reconciliation?

505
00:35:41,890 –> 00:35:45,570
Forgiveness is not necessarily for the person who has

506
00:35:45,570 –> 00:35:49,370
done you wrong as a leader, or has done your team wrong, or has

507
00:35:49,370 –> 00:35:53,050
done your organization wrong. Forgiveness is

508
00:35:53,050 –> 00:35:56,380
really for you. It’s so that you could be restored.

509
00:35:57,340 –> 00:36:00,620
Look, the. The daughter, right?

510
00:36:01,580 –> 00:36:05,340
When she gets the letter, what is one of the first things that

511
00:36:05,500 –> 00:36:09,300
she does? Well, the first thing that she

512
00:36:09,300 –> 00:36:12,060
does is that she starts crying.

513
00:36:13,420 –> 00:36:15,900
Tears. Hydro

514
00:36:17,020 –> 00:36:19,740
pathi charcadouche.

515
00:36:21,330 –> 00:36:24,850
The healing water of baptism, restoration

516
00:36:24,930 –> 00:36:28,730
at the beginning of a new year, and all before Orthodox

517
00:36:28,730 –> 00:36:32,210
Christmas. Chekhov didn’t write this story by

518
00:36:32,210 –> 00:36:34,450
accident, and he didn’t write it in a vacuum.

519
00:36:35,809 –> 00:36:39,170
As leaders, at the end of this year, think about restoration,

520
00:36:39,730 –> 00:36:43,010
think about reconciliation, and work very hard

521
00:36:43,410 –> 00:36:46,740
to open up those lines of communication so that

522
00:36:46,740 –> 00:36:49,380
existence can be reconfirmed

523
00:36:50,500 –> 00:36:53,460
between you and the people that you love.

524
00:36:55,700 –> 00:36:59,380
And, well. That’S it for

525
00:36:59,380 –> 00:36:59,700
me.

526
00:37:11,550 –> 00:37:27,070
Sam.

527
00:37:37,080 –> 00:37:37,320
Foreign.

528
00:37:48,360 –> 00:37:51,840
Thank you for listening and subscribing to the Leadership Lessons from the Great

529
00:37:51,840 –> 00:37:55,440
Books Podcast. If you’re listening to this on any of the major

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And of course, it helps us grow the show.

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550
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551
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552
00:39:15,930 –> 00:39:19,210
Well, I would also recommend reading a book.

553
00:39:19,690 –> 00:39:23,380
Matter of fact I’d recommend reading my most recent book, 12 Rules for

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Subscribing helps us grow the show as it does with the

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audio. Just is the same with the video.

565
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Alright, that’s it for me.