Barack Obama tells good stories, and asks good questions. in Dreams from my Father, he tells the story of his upbringing, his family, his roots in Kansas, Indonesia, Hawaii, and Kenya, of how his parents met and split up again, how he grew up in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather, and then in Hawaii with his maternal grandparents, and how he hardly knew his father. Really the quintessential pursuit of the American dream, when you think about it: his mother's parents moving away from Kansas to make a better life or themselves, his father doing the same, coming to Hawaii on his scholarship from Kenya, and Barack trying to figure out what it all means, where he fits, who he is, and what he is supposed to do with his life, and how to make it meaningful.
I keep thinking of the new Star Trek movie, where young Spock is told by his father, "You'll always be a child of two worlds. The question you face is: which part will you choose?" Made me want to shake my head and gnash my teeth. Such a terribly illogic way to frame this! Why would you have to choose just one, and discard the other? It's not an "either or" question! You can take the best of both, merge them, and make them into something new, whole, superior.
Obama seems to be pretty good at that.
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