Kamala Harris The Truths We Hold - An American Journey - my review

 I have to start off this by saying I like Vice President (as she now is) Harris which is why I wanted to get this book.

Kamala states this is not meant as a manifesto for office and it does not  really read like that at all. What it does read as, is pretty much like the beginning part of President Obama's excellent book, really as an introduction to the person.

As an introduction it is perfect and while since the election we have seen more of her, I personally found that this is book makes her far more interesting and even more likeable.   

Saying it is an introduction, is because this is really what it is. We learn about her family and back ground and what makes her, her. Personally I would like a bit more depth, but perhaps this is not the book for that and there is another to be written.

I learnt that Kamala is very much what you see and she doesn't pretend to be otherwise, she really gives 100% from her heart and mind. She is no nonsense and if you for one more think you can best her, then think again. I laughed to myself as I read through this as she could make an argument for the mountain to come to her and it would.

Yes, there is the "look at what I've done", but this doesn't really come across as ego, more as an encouragement for those to follow and join with her.

I want to use the term conviction politician, because this is what I get from this book and have seen translated into what she is doing as Vice President. I don't see her stopping until she sees the day of real equality regardless of race, creed, colour, have this.

I enjoyed this book and when it is written, but I hope is written after she has become President of the USA, the next book.  For one of the few times I found myself reading a book and seeing the person who wrote it being the person in real life, if that makes sense.

Yes I recommend this book to everyone, not just the ladies and young girls, but to all that think things are impossible, as this book clearly shows this is not the case and through hard work - everything is possible.  

Hidden me and the A word

Oh you can't be, you're nothing like that, no you're just trying to gain attention for yourself, I don't believe you. 

All of the above I have heard so many times, I could possibly give you an exact figure, but now days, I make the choice not to do. 

I have come to the conclusion, that many have so few observational skills, or are full of their own prejudice that they don't see what is in front of them.

Oh yes it is okay, to accept that I might be some kind of weirdo, that is acceptable, because my being that means they don't have to care or look any further. 

Oh yes I was the kid who had few friends, well I had many, but they were in books and I preferred it that way, as other kids were so immature and didn't want to know about history or anything I was interested in.

Oh yes it is fine to laugh at the way I walk, the fact that I can't co-ordinate my body and that I have tremors, just call me jerk why don't you. 

Oh yes it is fine to ask me answer when you can't get one, because I'll probably know it, then want nothing more to do with me. Yes it's fine I don't mind at all, not that I am going to let you know that I do. 

Oh yes I am the person who when I get a love for something will really know about it. Be that Marc Bolan or so called Ancient Egypt, if I see the beauty of something I will love it forever and learn as much as I can about it/.

Oh yes it can be fun to read things that I have written and see the missing words and point them out to me. I don't mind that at all, well not that I am going to let you know.

Oh yes I am the person who will look you in the eye, because I learnt that that is how you communicate and I will examine you to see that you're okay for me to trust.

Yes, I will hug you, it is just me saying you're okay. It is something I just do.

Oh yes it is funny when I have a big meltdown, or frightening, depending on, if you are at the centre of the storm or the on looker. 

Oh yes I can remember everything, because everyone remembers what they've done, except I really can't and when I told I breakdown and cry alone, away from others and think is it time for me to go if I am capable of that.

Oh yes I am the complete failure in life who could have gone to university and beyond, but didn't because learning was too easy for me and exams were too boring and took too long.

You see I am the person who has always known that I was "different", not special, there is nothing special about me. I am just different to you and nothing more.

Yes, I love and care deeply about others, more than myself (most of the time) I like to see people happy and I hate anyone to be sad. Perhaps I care too much at times and try to fix when there is no need to fix or so I am told, but I see every soul that is broken needing to be fixed.

Oh yes I am quite stable whatever that means, what does it mean? 

What you don't see is my daily struggle, now made worse with my health problems, just to be as "normal" as most others. What most don't see and perhaps when they do, they don't understand, that I will get upset at incorrect statements being said by those on the television, but they are not really on the television they are in a studio somewhere, or a recording, being transmitted to my television so that I can see them.

What you don't see is when I get so frightened that I have to run away and hide. You don't see my "people sickness" when I really become physically sick around people, which is why I have never done many of the things I have wanted to see.

Not many will know, my need to know things and to share my knowledge. That my world is often centred around books, because my statement that I could read when I was three is correct. 

I have live long enough now to fully acknowledge that through out my life, that others (adults when I was a child) can't quite place me. I have been prodded and probed, been given so many labels that I could fill a supermarket. Been told I live in a fantasy world  etc. etc. lost employment and relationships because of storms that I have little control over or had little control over. 

Oh yes I have had relationships, all of which have failed, because of the hidden part of me, the part that no one knew what label to give. I can't really remember much about those relationships, but when they failed it wasn't so much the relationship that broke me it was the routine. 

Routine, oh yes I have to have my routines for without them I get lost. If they change for any reason I can have a meltdown. 

Oh I am a very strange creature really, but am I? Am I really that strange? 

No I am not, I am a person with that has, for the most part a real struggle to get through the day in a world that I really don't understand and whose noise and lights overload me as do crowds and strange places. I am the person who struggles everyday just to keep the balance between Kev and that other part of me that I have no control over. 

I have a wonderful wife who for the last 26 years has been with me through the storms and the good times. Who has managed to get through to me and who tells me when I am showing signs and guides me. It is not easy for her, but as she will tell you most of the time I am her Kev, because well that is who I am. This same wonderful wife who has enabled me to get the label, the one with the A, it hasn't changed me I am still me. I still fart and grump, but at least I can understand now why I am different without worrying I am mentally ill. I am different because of something that I have no control over !

Oh, one final time. I know that many will read this, if anyone ever does and go no, you can't be. That is the trouble with those who live with the A word, there are so many types of it, that even those who help peeps with it find it hard to understand it fully. A friend of mine, wrote a piece on it and said very beautifully about it as she has it, I can't remember exactly, but there are many types as there are people.

So if you are unfortunate to meet me in person and you see me with my Hidden Disabilities Lanyard on or not, please don't treat me differently or be afraid, the fact that you see me at all means I have won some of that day's battles if not that day's war.

2 thanks - 1 to my beautiful wife Aly who accepts me as me and 2, to my friend Sam - Sam I am Kev