Sunday, August 3, 2008

A 'Dear Al' Letter

I have a confession to make … I can’t make it through Al Gore’s books.

There, I said it and shortly I will hit publish and it will be out in the world forever. Please don’t take my first born … unless you’re willing to pay for her next 2 years of college.

Lord knows I tried. I read the reviews of “The Assault on Reason”and bought the book in hard copy even. A third of the way through was all I could handle.

Once burned, I borrowed “Earth in the Balance”, from our community library just up the street (will that absolve me?). I succeeded in getting halfway through, even enjoying the parts about how weather effects history and how the French Revolution could have been helped along because of bad harvests.

But then I began to just skim it in the hopes of finding kernels of knowledge from our High Priest. Finally last night I had to put it aside with an apology as I placed it on the nightstand. (I actually said I’m sorry to his face on the back of the book.)

Al, you are my idol when it comes to how to recover from a life crisis. Your strength in not becoming a bitter recluse after the Shame of 2000 (theirs, not yours), your Phoenix-like rise from the ashes to pursue the even more worthy goal of saving the planet, to win an Oscar and then the Nobel Peace Prize … well, when I get down about my life, I just channel my Inner Al because baby, you are one hot role model.

But Al darling, everybody needs an editor, even God (i.e. all commentaries since Sinai).

So while I will support WE (love those commercials), continue to get a tingle when I listen to your speeches on YouTube, and think “An Inconvenient Truth” was amazing as a film as well as for its content, going forward on my journey I will look to you to supply the vision and the leadership only.

For a good read, I’ll reach for Bill McKibben, Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingslover or Thomas Friedman’s upcoming “Hot, Flat and Crowded”.

Please forgive me for I have sinned. Click.

News Flash: check out today’s LA Times Steve Lopez column on the Orange County Fair and Kimberly Barnes, 4-H Club member, president of her chapter of the Future Farmers of America and award winning goat farmer from Tehachapi, CA. She’s off to Iowa State University to become a veterinarian.

2 comments:

Natalie said...

I like the image of you apologizing to Al's picture!

I'm guessing from your sidebar that you haven't read "Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility", no? I'm having a hard time trudging through it - mostly because I find the authors' style to be irritating. But they have some valid points as to why Al Gore will never be as successful as we all hope he would be. Break Through has certainly helped me understand some of my frustration with Gore, and it goes well beyond his wordiness.

Bobbi said...

Hello Natalie, thanks for being my second comment ever! I read your blog too. Appreciate the book suggestion. Keep reading and keep politically active. Too few of us care.