Bye, George

I finished George 2 weeks ago. I have a drafted post. I just haven't done anything with it recently. I swear I will soon. 29 days till there's another reason I won't be posting, so let's keep those fingers crossed!

Alright- there's a baby coming in 2 days... I best post now!

George Washington didn't want to be president. He decided to step up and do it because he knew he could handle the job, and because he wanted America to happen. He took this role extremely seriously- he knew that every little thing he did would influence every other president to follow. He always made sure he appeared a specific way to the public and to his cohorts in the government. His letter communication was impeccable, and he even had Martha burn his personal letters after his death to keep up his formidable face. George really struggled in his decision-making when it came to the country. He preferred to rely heavily on his advisors and the congress, which of course, wound up causing him trouble and he dealt with a lot of back-stabbers once he left the position of first president. George worked hard every day till he died, working to better the future of the young country or monitoring the work being done on his family farm. The dedication he had to his work is ultimately how he wound up dying- he contracted an illness that strangled him to death, but he also was being treated by doctors of the time with leeches and other blood lettings, so he was being tourtured on his deathbed. It's sad too, because if he got sick like that today, he'd be able to take medication and be fine. Hooray 21st century!

What have I learned from my time spent with George Washington?
Being young and inexperienced is not a good excuse. Remember to THINK.
Work hard. It matters. You never know who is watching you as a role model.
Keep in mind those who will come after you.
Put others before yourself, and take the high road, even when others don't.
History will remember you, somehow. Try your best to make it a positive thing.

Happy Birthday, George

It's been a month since I first began my journey with Mr. George Washington, and I'm sad to say that we're not even a third of the way done with one another. I'm on page 100-something and fear that this coming Thursday I will take the book in to renew it AGAIN and will be denied. I was hoping to do a book a month, but life is not in agreement with my optimistic timetable. I will persevere! I will continue to read, albeit at a terribly slow pace.

Luckily, when I do find snippets of time to read, I enjoy what's there to be had.

"His Excellency" is a wonderful book- it reads more like a lecture than a straight forward historical literary work, and is full of original first documents which I adore. Ellis, thus far, has really had one main theme running through this book about our first president- he was just a guy. A regular human being who had money troubles, lusted after a friend's wife and got into the military because he didn't think that college sounded like a good idea. Really. I have been surprised time and again at how normal George Washington was. At the beginning of his career he was young and brash and was looking for glory to bring him fame, money and a higher social status for his family. He learned very quickly what reality was like, managed to survive some nasty military situations, and came out a better, more prepared man. A lot of the lessons that George winds up learning are lucky ones; everything that didn't kill him certainly made him that much stronger. And there's a lot of just straight dumb luck that plays into his successes- he got small pox while travelling abroad while still young, so when there was a huge breakout later while he was general, he knew what to do about it and already had the immunity that probably got him through a time in early American history where I think like one in three soldiers died of small pox. You frequently hear about people being born for a certain role, or being destined, and Ellis is certainly showing me that George Washington was one of those people.

Now let's not forget that he was human, and did have his faults- he liked money, and power, and showing off the money and power he had. As he aged and America became a nation fighting for its own birth he also started to see the military he was controlling as an extension of himself, and therefore was not willing at times to do what was the smarter thing- run away. Wait. Try something, anything that was not what was normal and expected of a general of the time. Luck has it though that he somehow turned a corner, realized that the best way to win was not to lose, and it now seems that he is enjoying being able to be unpredictable in his military attacks.

I found it very interesting how lightly the Declaration of Independence was touched on. We all see the 4th of July, 1776 as this HUGE day that has its own holiday on every calendar in the country, but back then... it was still just a day. The Declaration was just something they did to try and justify the war against the king; something for their colonial soldiers to rally under. I like that. I like that America didn't just happen- somebody had to stand up and PUSH to get it here. I like that there were so many to whom the land and life was so new, and yet they were ready to leave their families and head off to fight for their new country. That is patriotism, and I can't help but think what things would be like here and now if that level of passion arose in us as a people again...

His Excellency George Washington by Ellis

I have chosen, picked up and even begun my first book! Hurrah!

Joseph Ellis began his work on George Washington with a personal preface about how he first got to know our first president and then how he decided to write a book about him. It was interesting, short and well written. I hope the rest of the book is as enjoyable.

The historical journey begins with a single Youtube video

I have honestly never had a child make me feel as clueless as this one did.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMgQLdXcKRw



Charlotte, you have inspired me and set me out on my next literary quest. Watching this young brainiac and her trusty place mat really put me in my place- what kind of adult American am I that cannot even name a dozen presidents off the top of my head, let alone even tell you how many there have been altogether! Yipes! And it's not that the education system is failing us, this just is not something that we have emphasized lately and I think it's time to get going again on our presidents. I want to know this, so here goes.



I am going to read, in order, a presidential biography for all of our forty-three honorable gentlemen (Obama is currently serving term forty-four because Cleveland served two terms, but they were not back to back.) See! I learned something already! Thank you Wikipedia!



My title selections will come from a cross-reference from the best rated biography for each president on Amazon or from word of mouth and the books currently offered by my local library. If I was rich and super cool I would just download all the books at once onto my Kindle and enjoy the thought that all those books and all that historical knowledge was in that little piece of technology... but no dice. My job of staying at home with our baby and working on growing the next one (I'm 20 weeks along right now, due in early June) doesn't pay me well enough to do that.



I am personally excited and overwhelmed by this undertaking, but I know I will come out a better, more educated and thoughtful American for doing it. No toddler will EVER be able to show me up with her place mat knowledge again!



Please feel free to read along; I'd love to be able to have some intelligent comments posted along the way, and if you ever have a book referral you'd like to send my way, do it!