I recently finished reading Obama’s book, Dreams of My Father, what stood out was his openness and self-questioning. Through three sections, growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia, then moving on to college and eventually Chicago where he worked with local church groups and schools to fight for better services, and then on to Kenya where he learns about his family history. I thought it was a great book.
One thing that jumped out to me, having worked in a law firm for a good amount of time was this quote on law:
Study of law can be disappointing at times, a matter of applying narrow rules and arcane procedure to an uncooperative realty; a sort of glorified accounting that serves to regulate the affairs of those who have power – and that all too often seeks to explain, to those who do not, the ultimate wisdom and justness of their condition.
The book is more of a study on his race, how he comes to deal with and accept who he is. How he grows up. He’s striving to live up to who he thought his father was. It reminds me of a quote I heard recently, a women in her nineties saying she used to care what people thought of her, but then in her forties begin to care more about what she thought of them.
I’m doing a disservice to his book – best to read it.