Obama--A Promsied Land
First of all, Obama vocabulary-mogged me. In fact, he didn’t just mog me, but I think perhaps every other President on my reading list. I can’t recall a book in which I’ve had to look up more words. Some highlights:
Anodyne: Not likely to cause offense or disagreement and somewhat dull.
Jocular: Fond or characterized by joking; humorous or playful.
Phalanx: A number of troops in ranks and files. From Greek: Moveless as a tower.
And many more that I forgot to highlight.
Obama is a fantastic writer. However, just like Caro, word counts are scared of him. Obviously the ten or so years that this book covers can’t be confined to just one volume, but it is long. My one critique of this book is what Obama claimed was his main weakness in debates. In his words, his “long windups and preference for complicated answers worked against [him]”. Honestly, though, that is kind of the magic of the book. Every paragraph that was a bit too long, every tidbit that could have been cut down slightly coalesce into a beautiful account of his experience as President. Maybe the book would have done better if it was shorter. Maybe more people would have finished it. However, it wouldn’t be genuinely Obama writing it. As Kurt Vonnegut, the author of Slaughterhouse Five, says, the most important part of writing is sounding like oneself.
I’ve been writing a lot as of late. Whether that is college essays, blog posts, English assignments, emails or texts—it’s been a lot. Recently, though, I had a bit of a crisis. In all of the writing that I have been doing, I feel like my writing style has changed. It lost a little bit of whimsy. There are fewer jokes. It has become more serious, more intellectual. Perhaps—influenced by the plethora of AI-generated content that surrounds all of us, I’ve been using more em-dashes.[1]
My writing has also been influenced by odd things. When I took the SAT, I focused a lot on grammar rules, which, contrary to my mother’s best efforts, was my weakest section of the test. Taking the SAT helped me learn new grammar rules and apply them to my writing. I think that if you looked at something I wrote pre-SAT and post-SAT, you’d see a considerable difference. I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing. With proper grammar, my writing is more cohesive. However, I wonder, if I lost some of my unique voice. I don’t know. I’ve just been thinking about this a lot lately. In fact, I pose a challenge. Go back to my earliest posts and see if you can spot the difference. I’m sure it is there.
Sorry, I got a bit off track. It was a detour, but I feel a necessary one. Moving on…
…Obama. I like to write my biggest take-aways from the books that I read. More and more, I’ve been thinking about people’s childhoods. Where they grew up. Who they grew up with. Obama—more than perhaps every other President—grew up in a very down-to-earth family. He lived mostly with his grandparents. His family wasn’t poor—his grandmother made sure of that—however, compared to George W. Bush’s family, Obama’s was much less wealthy. And, most importantly, his mother and grandparents instilled a sense of decency, empathy, and kindness in him. Obama is truly just a good person. Here is an example from his days on the campaign trail:
The Hiliary Clinton campaign during the brutal primary, aired increasingly negative ads that attacked Obama. However instead of striking back, Obama subscribed to a philosophy echoed in Michelle’s 2016 DNC speech. “When they go low, we go high.” And high he went. In his words, he “killed TV spots I felt were unfair or too harsh”. His campaign tried to “consistently [emphasize] a positive message” that highlighted “what [he] stood for rather than what [he] was against”. I think that in this day and age, this is something that is forgotten too much. Obama didn’t attack others. He didn’t defame. Instead, he went high. If everyone tried to live more like Obama, the world would be a better place.
That’s why I liked this book. Obama’s character filled me with hope, and made me smile. His good-naturedness made me laugh, along with his willingness to laugh at himself, something that I think we all need to remember to do. Obama’s book truly sounds like him, and has a very Obama like message. One of kindness.
Finally, I have one more thing to share. Obama’s get hyped playlist.
- Freddie Freeloader - Miles Davis
- My Favorite Things - John Coltrane
- Luck Be a Lady - Frank Sinatra
- My 1st Song - Jay-Z
- Lose Yourself - Eminem
[1] Just as I was writing this I realized that ‘em-dash’ is spelled with an ‘em’ not a ‘m’. The LARP goes deeper than I thought…
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