Discussion for Part 2: Chicago is open!
I think the discussion went really well last time without the need for any thought questions, so we'll let the discussion go wherever people want to start with it.
Discussion for Part 3: Kenya and the Epilogue will open in 2 weeks - March 21.
Also, in a week I will put up a post about choosing the next book so that people will have time to find it and get reading once the current discussion wraps up.
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12 comments:
I put this post up a little early since tomorrow I'll be cleaning and running errands all day for company that is coming in to town this weekend. I'm looking forward to the discussion!
I actually haven't finished the assignment yet. This section has a slower pace for me. I've learned that "white flight" is not a southern phenomenon. And I admire Barack's passion and dedication to helping the people out. That is a job that I would not want or be able to handle.
Some of my favorite parts so far are when he meets his sister, and when he takes one of the ladies (sorry her name eludes me at the moment) to the play about African American women. I get the feeling that she came out of it feeling empowered...that even with all her trials and difficulties in life, she can still be a strong, beautiful, amazing woman.
I enjoyed this section in some ways, seeing him work on what seemed like a fight that would never really end, putting his heart and soul into it. I was amused by his naivete about making changes...very much like my job, there are the changes you can make and the changes you can show people, but that they have to make the effort themselves. As bad as things are, for some people, they're more comfortable there because society tells them the change will be difficult and scary, and telling them otherwise will be like telling them they have to believe the world is shaped like a cube and an alien named Wilberforth is using it to play blocks.
I haven't finished the section yet, so maybe Obama discusses his own naivete about change a little later on. I've read about his frustrations and some of his failures, but aside from being naive about how hard the work was going to be, he hasn't expressed his thoughts on being naive about change. Does he do so? The reason I ask is that I had an interesting discussion with my mother while she was in town this weekend. She saw the book sitting on my desk, and it got us talking about the things Obama has gone through in his life that have prepared him to be the person he is today. I promised I wouldn't go political, and I'm not really, just commenting on this aspect of "change". A lot of people are saying he's taking on too many things from trying to stimulate the economy to trying to reform health care to trying to resolve conflicts abroad etc. One of the things my mother and I discussed is that maybe Obama isn't afraid to tackle all these big things at once because he's not afraid of failure, having gone through it over and over again before. We all know that failure is part of life - it's something I see day in and day out with my little boys as they try to master new skills. If they were so scared of failing, they would never learn. But somehow, as we grow up into adults, some of us become afraid of failing. Somehow it's become ingrained in us that we need to be perfect and that failing at something is a form of weakness. But, it's not. So, while the stakes are high with some of these things Obama is tackling, maybe he has a confidence from these experiences that tell him that it's okay to fail - that in order to eventually succeed, he/we might fail along the way, but hopefully we'll find ourselves in a better place than where we began.
I do agree that you can't change people. You can provide them the opportunities, but they have to make the change themselves. I will need to read further to see what kind of methodologies Obama tried to use to bring change to these people. Right now, it seems like just a lot of trying to get people to come together for a common purpose type of rallying...I have to admit these pages make me feel very tired. I feel tired just reading about what the man did, not to mention how trying it must have been to be the one doing it!
I don't think he said it outright, it was just sort of the impression I got, reading him. It put me in the mind of those fresh-faced college graduates who set out to change the world and expect everyone to jump on their bandwagon because of their eagerness, never realizing how much hard work and how many disappointments are on the road ahead before they can claim even one small triumph. Maybe because I'm so recently graduated myself did I see it that way, but that's sort of my impression.
Sorry I haven't been responding to these posts. It's just that I haven't really felt like I had anything to say. On one occasion I literally sat there with the comment box open, staring at the screen, unable to think of anything. So I forgot about it for a bit and went and did something else, then came back and found that I STILL couldn't think of anything. So I gave up and closed the window.
It's just...it's a heavy book. And I guess reading it leaves me feeling sort of empty, like it's sapped away all of my creative energy. It's sort of like when someone tells you about some hardship in their life (like a breakup or a death in the family) and you don't know how to respond. It's not a comfortable feeling. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because I think we all need to read something that makes us feel that way at some point in our lives...but it's not something I can easily reconcile with.
So...truth be told, I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. It's beautifully written, but it's emotionally exhausting.
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
I'm really glad you commented, Ellen. I have been wondering what everyone's reactions to the book are. It has been a difficult book for me to read. I, too, find myself exhausted after reading, even if it's only a couple of chapters. For that reason, I have not been reading it as quickly as I should be, but I hope to finish it up before the final discussion.
I'm also with Ellen and Kate. It's been a heavy book. I think I went for about 2 weeks with little desire to pick it up. But I finally finished it and glad I did. I'm glad Ellen brought that up. I hadn't exactly put those feelings into words, and she did it.
Your comment inspired me to finish reading the second section today, Ruth. I plan on trying to finish the rest of the book by Wednesday.
This middle section was really hard for me to get through. Like Ruth, I would go several days in between my reading. Yet, I am glad I'm reading it. It's made me think about my own participation in the community and efforts to help those around me.
I had to laugh about one thing Barack Obama wrote about. On page 151 of the paperback copy he's talking about his initial impressions of some people at the first rally he attended. He mentioned that the people looked like they eat at Red Lobster on special occasions. I like to eat at Red Lobster on special occasions, too. I love their molten lava chocolate cake. :D Anyway, I'm not sure what he was getting at with his descriptions (shopping at Kmart and Sears or driving late-model cars), but I like Red Lobster, so there you go.
I enjoyed learning more about Obama's father, even though it was mostly sad news that his sister, Auma, gave him. I found it interesting that Obama's drive to succeed was due in part from the image he had in his mind about who is father was. When he learned the truth, that the image in his mind didn't exactly correlate to the real person that his father was, it was a strange liberation for him, although not exactly a satisfying one. I wonder how that must have felt, to have the image that he's tried to live up to all these years be shattered, and then to figure out where to go next with that, where to turn to next. Will he still turn to that image he built up, or will he recognize that his father can still be someone to strive to be like in some ways, but also to recognize that his father was human, and being human, made mistakes.
It was an interesting section. I'm still not sure what kind of overall concrete "change" Obama was able to accomplish. It seemed liked an endless uphill battle. He did affect individuals on a personal level, though, and maybe that's where it starts.
Not that this has any major relevance to the topic at hand, but I had a hard time taking his sister seriously not because of her description or anything like that, but because she happens to share the same name as a badger in the Redwall series.
On a more serious note, I do think that affecting people on a personal level, making them see the ways they can make small changes in their own lives and circles, is one of the only real ways to make larger, more permanent change happen. You can't change anyone, but you can teach them how to change themselves.
I am finally getting around to commmenting on this section. It took me a while to finish between being sick, and like some of you it isn't one I really want to pick up a lot. However, I have really enjoyed the reading and what I have learned, it's just not a real page turner. Very heavy like you said.
I guess my main appreciation is just that I am getting to understand Obama and where he is coming from better. I remember hearing a lot about his "community organizing days" during the election and not really understanding what that meant. This section really answered a lot of questions for me as far as what he did and how it helped shape him for the future. I thought the very last part of this section where he attends church and how the sermon affected him (affect or effect? that one always trips me up) was especially powerful and gave me new insight to how faith and churches play a role in that community.
Just stopping by to say that I finished this section earlier this week. I will be glad to finish this book but I'm also glad that I'm reading it. What impresses me most is the depth of Obama's reflections. It's a little heavy reading but I'm just so glad to have a president who is reflective.
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