Life Advice from Barack Obama (Part I)
What the forty-fourth president has to say about reading novels, making fewer decisions, and finding time to think.
Reading about Barack Obama on the internet can take you to some strange and unsettling places. But it’s just as likely to take you to an amazing place. Digging into the online archives of Obama-related content can bring joy and inspiration. It can make you wistful and nostalgic. You’ll find videos that make you smile, videos that make you cry, and videos that make you smile even as you’re crying.
At a time when it’s easy to feel cynical and hopeless, I find it both comforting and useful to take the occasional tour into the depths of the Obama era, if only to remind myself that the way things are right now is not the way they have to be. You can engage in politics in good faith and without sacrificing your values. You can be caring, empathetic, and thoughtful, and you can still win elections. You can conduct yourself with decency and integrity, while also getting things done. Politicians can be a force for good. Politics itself can be a force for good.
Scanning the electronic universe of Obama content also offers some more practical lessons. One of the many consequences of the celebritization of the American presidency and our collective…
