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...
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