So far this Westpac deployment, I've been reading mostly fiction. The Nook that M got me for my birthday 18 months ago has now proved its usefulness. I preloaded it with Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Thoreau, and a few individual classics prior to getting underway. Although I don't have the free time I would like, I still have devoured Treasure Island, A Comedy of Errors, Tao te Ching, a book about cyberwarfare, a book about the history of nuclear power, and Les Miserables. The majority of those were great, especially Victor Hugo's masterpiece, but I have missed the nonfiction I normally read. To that end, after finishing Les Miserable yesterday, I bought American Lion by Jon Meachem, a biography about Andrew Jackson.
I read His Excellency, a biography of George Washington, shortly before I left. I have never been much for biographies. I read one of Alfred Nobel half a year ago, but that's all I can think of. After reading about Washington, I'm more than open to more biographies. Especially when they resonate so well with me, like Andrew Jackson's. Although he would always have been my answer if asked my favorite president, I never knew we had so much in common. I feel a distinct kinship with him that I doubt I would feel with any other president.
I feel that my own outlook on life is most closely paralleled by his. Jackson grew up with family difficulties, hardship, and with hate in his heart towards those threatening the only thing he had left: his country. He favored ideals while selectively ignoring transgressions of similar moral values. He placed great importance in his religion and in Scripture, while deriving autonomy and independence from his own abilities. I feel that I, at least in part, can say the same about myself. I too, for better or worse, overlook individual aspects of issues to approach the larger whole more simply. I too feel devotion, loyalty, and fealty are part of my set of virtues.
Beyond abstract qualities, him and I have a number of similar external characteristics as well. Jackson was nominally a provincial goon, while actually being well read and articulate. I now recognize my own mental acuity, yet I still strive at all times to be a people's man; to repress the tendency to be haughty, clever, or annoyingly intelligent. Him and I are both quick to analyze others and act on our interpretations, whether that takes us to anger towards an enemy or uninterrupted love for a wife.
This is not to say there is not a plethora to learn from his biography. Indeed, I am only barely through the first 50 pages. It is only the sparsity of information about his early life that has allowed me to proceed thus far this quickly. As I read, I'd like to pay greater attention to his selflessness, devotion to the public good, perseverence of opinion, and many other virtues less easily named. The next 50 pages should be instructive.
I read His Excellency, a biography of George Washington, shortly before I left. I have never been much for biographies. I read one of Alfred Nobel half a year ago, but that's all I can think of. After reading about Washington, I'm more than open to more biographies. Especially when they resonate so well with me, like Andrew Jackson's. Although he would always have been my answer if asked my favorite president, I never knew we had so much in common. I feel a distinct kinship with him that I doubt I would feel with any other president.
I feel that my own outlook on life is most closely paralleled by his. Jackson grew up with family difficulties, hardship, and with hate in his heart towards those threatening the only thing he had left: his country. He favored ideals while selectively ignoring transgressions of similar moral values. He placed great importance in his religion and in Scripture, while deriving autonomy and independence from his own abilities. I feel that I, at least in part, can say the same about myself. I too, for better or worse, overlook individual aspects of issues to approach the larger whole more simply. I too feel devotion, loyalty, and fealty are part of my set of virtues.
Beyond abstract qualities, him and I have a number of similar external characteristics as well. Jackson was nominally a provincial goon, while actually being well read and articulate. I now recognize my own mental acuity, yet I still strive at all times to be a people's man; to repress the tendency to be haughty, clever, or annoyingly intelligent. Him and I are both quick to analyze others and act on our interpretations, whether that takes us to anger towards an enemy or uninterrupted love for a wife.
This is not to say there is not a plethora to learn from his biography. Indeed, I am only barely through the first 50 pages. It is only the sparsity of information about his early life that has allowed me to proceed thus far this quickly. As I read, I'd like to pay greater attention to his selflessness, devotion to the public good, perseverence of opinion, and many other virtues less easily named. The next 50 pages should be instructive.
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