Good Review

I love the New York Times. I love it in the way only a non-New Yorker with a relatively lower middle class background can. I love it as an object of desire like a Rolls Royce or some other class symbol that I may someday (if I’m very, very lucky) get to ride in, but never own.

Today’s edition was like a lot of days. There were really interesting stories on credit cards, and some things actually came together in my head as the start of a fascinating self reflective essay. However, today I don’t feel particularly self reflective or fascinating, so I’ll point out a book I can’t wait to read.

If the book Lost in the Meritocracy Janet Maslin reviews in the article “Whiz Kid in College, Hold That Attitude!” provides any of the food for thought that the review does, it will be a great read.

I’ll let Maslin’s review speak for itself, but it seems to me that is one of those books that asks really scary questions, because we are all afraid at some level of getting found out. I’m not saying (nor am I divulging any) that we all have deep dark secrets, but it seems to me that my life in my thirties is a constant battle between trying to get a little wiser, and realizing that the depth of my own ignorance.

It seems as I hurtle past my middle thirties, what I have largely figured out is the things that I’m not as good at as I thought. I reminds me a of a story a former boss once told me.

She was picking up her seventh grade son from playing football one night, and as they were talking he said, “You know Mom, I don’t think we will all get to play professional football when are older.”

It was a funny moment, but fascinating that was the moment in which this particular kid figured out the playground fantasy was just that, fantasy.

So, I’m not unhappy. Heck, I’m probably happier now than I have been in a long time, but I’m looking forward to reading this book. Because I think I’m starting to figure out that we may not all write the great American novel someday.