My Half-Forgotten Life
Posted by Cottontimer on 30 Jul 2006 | Tagged as: Me, Memes and Quizzes, Reading
I’m about 200 pages (one-fifth) of the way into Bill Clinton’s memoir, My Life, and I can’t believe the details he’s able to include from all the way back to childhood like the names of his teachers, classmates, camp buddies, neighbors, conversations, what he ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, how many leaves on the trees (ok, maybe not but some of the minutiae he includes is on par). Did he make some of it up or what? I would have to if I tried to recount most of my childhood and even my adult life.
Starting in college, President Clinton began keeping a journal of daily events, thoughts, and feelings. Considering his active participation in politics along with his two years at Oxford and the traveling he did around Europe, he had plenty to write about. If he had a blog, I’m sure it would have been a Technorati 100. 
He’s a good writer who’s able to explain complex ideas clearly and put them in context not to mention having some very entertaining anecdotes
My life has also had many memorable moments that have sadly been half-forgotten. I’ve done my best to record the highlights but it is nothing compared to President Clinton’s journals and memoir (but perhaps I shouldn’t be comparing myself to him anyway!). Maybe I’ll review Alexandra Johnson’s Leaving a Trace: On Keeping a Journal and Nan Phifer’s Memoirs of the Soul: Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography.
What’s the point of living if I can’t remember it?
NB: Bill Clinton’s Africa Travel Diary
b5media’s A Creative Journal by Heather Goldsmith
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I really enjoyed this book. I especially liked the first half — his childhood, college years, early adulthood. Very interesting!!
Bravo to you for taking on that book. I considered listening to it on tape after I had my lasik surgery, but it turned out the recovery was too fast
I have read the first 1/2 - 3/4 or Hillary Clinton and Katherine Graham’s autobiographies. I can never get farther than that because I start to lose track of all the associates and relationships, etc. The one big thing I learned from reading those books is a common aphorism for success: “It’s not WHAT you know, it’s WHO you know” and for the Clintons and Graham, this was absolutely true.
lkeele: Me too. I’m so impressed at all he experienced and triumphed over.
river2sea72: I didn’t care for Katherin Graham’s autobiography at all because it felt like endless namedropping. Hillary Clinton’s book was more interesting because she talked about policy but her childhood was pretty conventional. Bill Clinton’s is the best of the lot and even though it’s long, it’s interesting. I’ve also got Madeline Albright’s memoir on my shelf. Don’t know when I’ll get around to that one!
As for the people the Clintons associated with, I thought it was interesting that they weren’t hobnobbing with the elite when they were students but the crowd they ran in clearly had superior qualities that enabled many of them to succeed. It’s like my mother-in-law seems to know a lot of super-rich people. Me and the people I associate with are all pretty average.
Re: “What’s the point of living if I can’t remember it?”
You enjoy it!
We humans have a crazy fascination with recording everything down. Jason, for example, often teases me about Asian people and cameras… we should just bask in the moment, instead of being obsessed with capturing them.
Who you callin’ average?
echomyst: Just last weekend while we were at the aquarium, a group of three friends were walking ahead of us on the sidewalk. One of the girls asked the others to wait so she could take a pic and the guy said really exasperatedly, “For f*ck’s sake! Enough with the pictures already!” hahaa
river2sea72: So you think you’re better than me, is it? hehhe OK, then. You’re all above average in my book!
i’m sure clinton had a lot of help remembering. there must have been hundreds of journalists who’ve done the legwork trying to dig everything about such an important person!
still, what a full life, indeed!
Since Charlie was born (and really since he was in utero), I have kept a journal about the day’s minutiae.
I don’t know if I shall ever have time to read it!
But occasionally I read a page, and remember.