“Dreams From My Father”

I read Barack Obama’s book “Dreams from My Father” a while ago now. It’s an easy read but raises some very complex issues. Issues of race and inheritance. Issues like the proverbial terrier that nip at our heels as we pass by. On many levels I understand him very well, understanding that’s bore from personal experience.

I think I’ve been a ‘grey’ person all my life. Not because it’s easier (it’s not) but because the black or white of an issue isn’t exactly what I believe. Grey is not fence-sitting but neither is it extreme or completely disinterested which is how wide the gap can feel when taking a black or white position. Being grey is like being in a waiting room to see a Doctor. It’s where we sort out whether we’re really ill or just feeling off colour and nothing a day in bed wouldn’t fix.

When I was growing up I was one of just three other Maori kids in my French class (the other two were my cousins Davina and Maymond). Back then, classes were streamed. “Bright” kids got into the language classes and all the rest did Commercial subjects i.e. typing (later in my life I thought these much more useful skills). Language students were treated differently, mainly like they had a future!

In “grown up” life I recognise that actualy everyone does (have a future) it’s how we live into it that makes us who and how we are. My old High School is having its Jubilee in 2009. Such things always make me curious to see how each one of us has ‘spent’ our talents or whether we simply buried them waiting for the day. Do you ever wonder where so and so is or how they turned out? I do, often.