his excellency

i'm reading his excellency, a biography focusing on the character of George Washington. i'm not even halfway through the book, but i decided to remark on it a bit. first of all, i think it is important to give oneself permission to study history. in high school, even in some college classes, you have to read because there is no alternative. and so it's a big step in the years after college to give oneself permission to study literature and history on one's own. you are a perpetual student. you have permission from God himself to read any and all books, nor are you too stupid for any particular mission. if you wanted to, you could learn 100 different languages. you have the intelligence.

so, the interesting thing about a biography of Washington is that each biographer has his or her own ax to grind. this particular book seems to want to poke holes in the mythology that surrounds the life of the Father of our Nation. still, i am glad i bought this book, and i hope i will continue studying the lives of leaders.

i like also the fact that so little is known of certain details of a life from centuries ago, for example, the influence of his Father and Mother on him in his early years. what is known can be recorded and passed down in the form of histories, but a lot is not known about Washington. but he never gave up. he wasn't going to give up until his nation was independent of Great Britain.