World War II holds a certain interest for me. I have to wonder if it is because I would be speaking a completely different language and my country would be a little red blip on the world map if events had turned out otherwise. Anyway whatever the reason I do read the occasional book on that era. This book is about the previous 100 years and the reasons why Japan bombed Pearl Harbour on that fateful morning of December 7th, 1941. Now after saying that you won’t necessarily like the answers that this book holds.

Bradley is also the author of Flags of Our Fathers – the book about his father’s role in raising the flag at Iwo Jima and how no one knew about his level of his involvement until after he had died. The humility of that generation coined the Greatest by Tom Brokaw is exemplified by his behaviour in the Pacific. Bradley probably was intrigued by the attack of the Japanese as that changed his family’s history dramatically. He researches the presidencies of McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt and also the involvement of Taft and his work with Roosevelt out in Asia specifically with this subject in mind.

Just about everything I knew about Teddy Roosevelt was a fallacy. As a heads-up, this book was incredibly hard to read with respect to the way that many people were treated. Roosevelt wanted the world to view him in a certain way and never was photographed in some situations and always in others. He was the original media and public relations junkie. He often would have one conversation with a world leader but then relay a completely different notion to the American press.

In the summer of 1905 Roosevelt sent then Secretary of War William Howard Taft and his oldest daughter, Alice on a diplomatic mission across the Pacific. Alice was hugely popular as she lived a relatively wild life and the press and people of the US loved her. Alice was to keep the reporters and photographers busy while Taft met secretly with several leaders. Civilizing the Asian people was the idea of the trip for Roosevelt. These meetings would set up the groundwork for America’s Pacific engagement but would come back to bite the people of the US less than 40 years later.

Bradley never gives his opinion throughout the book which is admirable. He just writes how history went down and who met with whom and why America was so interested in Asia and the Pacific. Personally I found the chapter on the opium wars very interesting with Queen Victoria being the most notorious ‘dealer’ along with some pretty heavy hitting names from American history. Worth your time especially if you are at all interested in world politics.

I work in real estate and I also work for a golf ministry. I love working with people and get frustrated when there is too much bureaucracy especially when it comes to paperwork and real estate. I know me, mostly, and I know that I love working with people and helping them. The golf ministry gives me so much pleasure it feels as if I am not really working most of the time. I help with a programme where young golfers get to follow around golf pros during practice round day and have a q and a session with them. This is super fun and kids and their parents really get into it. The organization of something like this can be a bit overwhelming but nearly all the time everyone is very patient and also gracious. I say all this because this book, along with a couple of others I have read recently (StandOut being uber helpful), have solidified for me that it is okay to do what you love and get paid for it as well. We all have skills that we know about but what about the things that we haven’t refined yet.

I have been involved in community events and organization for years now and more recently organize an event in our neighbourhood that is very popular and also great fun. These books helped me to realize (as well as some very helpful and positive feedback from friends) that I should be pursuing a career in event planning and community organization/planning because they are things that I am very good at and also love doing. What a concept. Now many of you are probably thinking ‘well duh’ but we are so conditioned to thinking about the job rather than the joy. I do not expect to earn a fortune and I’m not going to give up my job with FCA Golf because I make a difference in people’s lives and I love doing that. So what’s a person to do? Well this book talks about relationships and using our time wisely as well as getting back to what we know and love. I now am stepping out in faith, literally as well as figuratively, and going for it. Now would I have done this without reading these books? I don’t know as I am pretty impulsive which I know can be very negative but the positive side of that is I am not afraid of new things. In fact I embrace them.

Next year I am presenting at a women’s conference on friendship. This has become a hot topic for me recently. I have previously studied and taught on worldview and church history and find that making history fun helps people to learn about it. Friendship is something that is becoming more difficult for people. We have facebook and thousands of ‘friends’ but no face to face time which we need. There are a great couple of chapters which deal with these topics in the book as well so they helped me with that project too. See, a multi-faceted book.

Suffice it to say, we need to be moving forward in our lives and not stagnate. How do you want to be? The me I want to be is a long way off but I am trying and hope that this book helps you to do the same.