previous entries in this ongoing conversation here
Well, I didn't give up on my quest; I got distracted by another one. At the very end of week two my office phone rang off the hook with two job interviews, another potential career option and the request for an invited talk. My phone never rings that much in a month, never mind a day and a half. So all of the crazy that goes with preparing for an interview and actually flying to another time zone to have the interview took over all time that I would have blogged about anything, as well as anytime I would have to explore politics.
So here we are, a few days out of Super Tuesday and I'm still digging. I have finished Hillary's book and dear hubby has finished Barack's. I'm now about halfway through Barak's and hub is reading Hillary as I type. There may be a barrage of posting in the next few days as I scramble to share all of my thoughts, but I'm going to break it up into chunks. Today: a review of Living History.
This book is worth reading regardless of an ongoing election.
As a person: First, you should know I like history and I find historical reading fascinating. I mean, who else do you know that read The Glory and the Dream in it's entirety the summer after high school. (I'm a bit of a nerd). So, I found reading Living History to be a fascinating volume of the history taking place during the 8 years I was too busy being a teenager and college student to pay enough attention. I feel I have a greater understanding of many things I just didn't know much about.
As a women: This book is amazing. Hillary tells the story of coming to age during the women's rights movement people of my generation think of as the past. Her experience's should not be comparable to mine 40 years later. It saddens me that that are. But emboldens me as well. Even the little things. She talks about not changing her name, and being forced to when her husband was in the public eye. She talks about people not understanding that she was not Hillary Clinton, but family and friends consistently sending mail to Mr. and Mrs. Clinton. 30 years later I am experiencing the same phenomena, and not just from great-aunts who stick with ingrained social traditions, but from cousins who are younger than me. I recently made the decision to hyphenate my name for the first time since I was married. Not legally, just semi-professionally. My husband and I applied to jobs in the same department and I thought that in light of some universities starting to address the two-body problem and others not being willing to interview women that may not be willing to uproot because they are less likely to do so if they are married to established men that a subtle indication that we were both mobile was appropriate. I agonized over that choice, it wasn't just one of practicality, it was in a sense changing my identity. I was angry that I even had to think about it. That was the aspect of my application I was worrying about, not my credentials, my NAME! In the end I got an interview and my name didn't matter one bit. What a waste of emotional energy. What a crappy world we live in. Anyways, I digress, the bottom line is the book and her personal story resonated with me. Read it, everyone should know how far we haven't come.
As a voter: This is an amazing women. This is an amazing person. She would be a fantastic president. She has experienced, first hand, all of the crap that goes with being in the White House and on the flip side will know how to make progress as a president without letting the crap ruin it. Reading this story one has to admire the strength of a women willing to go back there. Reading this story I realized that she has to have an unbelievable desire to make a difference to be willing to put herself and her family through another presidency. But most of all, I took away a belief that she would run a successful administration. An administration that would fight for the things I believe in. An administration I'd be happy with. The book rings with raw honesty and self-reflection. Above all, I value honesty. I value a person who knows who they are, and is willing to be open about it.
Summary:
Informative: check
Inspirational: check
Qualities I admire: check
Political views in alignment with my own: check
Potential candidate: check
phew!! You're back! I was seriously getting worried that you'd bailed on the primaries.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear you're almost done with the books. I'm especially looking forward to you're Obama review.
His book "The Audacity of Hope" (I didn't read his first one) was OK. Nothing special, but still a decent overview of some of his positions. For me his podcasts are the best way to get a sense of what what he will do, because they provide his real time explanation for his actions while he was in the Senate.
When interviewing I've found that past behavior is indicative of future results.
I can't wait for the next post!