"So watcha readin'?...and watcha dreamin'?"

National elections can be all-consuming to many of us who enjoy politics.

My experience (limited to observing activities from a conservative vantage point over these past 3 decades) is that liberals tend to eat, drink and sleep their brand of politics, EVERY DAY. So when a hero like Hillary Clinton or Teddy Kennedy fails to gain their party's nomination for President, many are lost and are forced to go home to sulk, maybe-voting with very little commitment for the party's choice, hoping REALLY that their "non-choice" ultimately loses...'cause then they can band together behind their original person. They LOVE to follow politics like a sports fan follows the sport-of-the-day...sport season after sport season. Year in, year out. Never giving up, never giving in.

Conservatives tend to eat, drink and sleep their brand of politics for a much shorter duration....maybe the election year cyle. The key, though, is that there is a clear line of demarcation demanding that conservatives go home, raise their kids, keep working their small businesses and get on with life. The harshest (and truest) comment about conservatives is that "they go home when they lose...and they go home when they win". Faith based conservatives are the worst....they/we tend to look too eagerly at going home...often, before we even vote. AWOL they call it in the military.

Liberals tend to always be on duty. They tend to be anti-war activists, always vigilant - ironically ready at right-shoulder-arms.

So, today I, as a Progressive Conservative, who is following this race (and blogging far too often about it), I decided to take the day off from walking the streets of The Holy City Of Obama-nation, Tina Fey-ville, McCain Keyboard-Town and Joe-Mama Biden Place to ask a question: what are you reading?

Here's a sample of what's occupying my dreamy mind in the City of Book-worm-ville:

"Good to Great" - almost done with this not-so-new-classic tale of moving people and companies up from mediocrity to greatness. Incredible read. It can impact your world, no doubt, as it has mine.

"1960" - see ealrier posting about this great new read. Like the author's previous work "1920" it's a fast and furious tale of LBJ, JFK and Richard M. Nixon...and their races to the White House in that year.

"Leadership and Self Deception" - The Arbinger institute's classic on how easily swayed and deceived leaders can become, because they/we/I never "get out of the box"...unless we change a position and DO IT.

"Courageous Leadership" - Bill Hybels' new work on leading a Christian organization. Though I enjoy it, I'd kinda like to have read ANYTHING about failures he's had...then move up from there, but alas...cold hard concrete when dreams might have been just as good....

Do you think that old dead dudes have very little to say to you? (You might if you fail to realize that strange things are a-foot at the Cirlce K. tee hee)

Civil War General Lew Wallace, writing in the first edition of "Ben Hur" (1873), wrote of dreams. He penned:

"Men speak of dreaming as if it were a phenomenon of night and sleep. They should know better. All results achieved by us are self-promised, and self-promises are made in dreams awake. Dreaming is the relief of labor, the wine that sustains us in act. We learn to love labor, not for itself, but for the opportunity it furnishes for dreaming, which is the great under-monotone of real life, unheard, unnoticed, because of its constancy. Living is dreaming. Only in the grave are there no dreams."

So...watcha readin'?

Den

Comments

[Dennis Mansfield]

Jan, thanks for asking. I love that book and did a post on it not too long ago on this blog. go to the Google section I have at the top of the blog and type in Team of Rivals. check it out and let me know what you think.
Den

[Janet]

Den, have you read "Team of Rivals - The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I am still reading it but am fascinated by Lincoln's skill in bringing people with opposing thoughts together to work for the greater good! (sounds like something we need in politics right now!)

To quote one reader:

"Ms. Goodwin has created a gem of a masterpiece with her most recent book on Lincoln. In the millions of pages already written on the subject, there are no books that I know of that do in essence, a character study on Lincoln and his cabinet members. The 754 page text is one of the best ever written regarding the true and underlying nature of those men who served with Lincoln in his cabinet."

Check it out... I know how much you like "Lincolnesque" books...

[Dennis Mansfield]

I hear ya! When I stumbled upon "The Shack" this summer, I sort-of had BOTH reality and fantasy at the same time. It's a wonderful book with a tremendous premise. I loved it.
den

[Woody]

Nothing so lofty! I read mostly at night and in the wee hours of the morning when I'm having trouble sleeping. I'm currently indulging my second childhood with bookshelves of Dungeons & Dragons based fantasy novels. Hard to worry about the stress waiting at the office when you're reading about wizards and dragons and other fantastic stuff. It doesn't enlighten, but it does help me shut off my worries and get back to sleep... well, some of the time at least.