i haven't read anything substantial in a while. anything where words translate to elegant and poignant prose that somehow makes me dig back to the days when i used to study. until today, when i started my morning reading vanity fair's "young barack obama in love: a girlfriend's secret diary". it was also fitting that i had just messaged a hs peer of mine, notably known for her love for the liberal and her literary genes (both mom and dad teachers and writers). i've always preached a path of pragmatic academia, pragmatic cause and effect. learn what is needed to do stuff, learn not what is frivolous to the task. however, the liberal arts is exactly that which has this intangible value that seeps to fill the crevasses like liquid concrete rounding out ones persona with consequence, foresight, history and balance.
when was the last time i heard the word "milieu" used? and with me in korea, whens the next time i'd hear it used? and when was the last time i heard a reference to yeats? in fact, my english is only going to deteriorate as i spend most of my time translating my everyday korean and less time delving into profound english. just not going to happen.
"there is no doubt that what i retained in my politics is a sense that the only way i could have a sturdy sense of identity of who i was depended on digging beneath the surface differences of people. the only way my life makes sense is if, regardless of culture, race, religion, tribe, there is a commonality, these essential human truths and passions and hopes and moral precepts that are universal. and that we can reach out beyond our differences. if that is not the case, then it is pretty hard for me to make sense of my life. so that is the core of who i am" - obama.
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