Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father

I just finished reading Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father and am feeling happy with the book.  It is about discovering roots and finding a base for them in the present, a place where they fit in with the current way of life.  It was about mixing things together and changing well-formed opinions into better-formed opinions, with more workable truth for them to rest on.  Obama travels to New York, Chicago, and to Kenya, as he learns about his family and about how his experience can help him understand the experiences of others.  The book is wise and interesting from start to finish.  In the final pages of the book Rukia says about identity and what it means to be an authentic person:

"They live in a mixed-up world.  It's just as well, I suppose.  In the end, I'm less interested in a daughter who's authentically African than one who is authentically herself" (435).

And Obama says of the baobab trees:

"They both disturbed and comforted me, those trees that looked as if they might uproot themselves and simply walk away, were it not for the knowledge that one moment carries within it all that's gone on before" (437).

I found these statements to be very wise, offering tremendous insight into one way of understanding life.  The first quote I considered incredibly peace promoting, emphasizing the truth inherent in an individual as opposed to forcing something onto them at a time when it is not appropriate.  The second idea that "one moment carries within it all that's gone on before" gives me a sense of inner tranquility, knowing that it's okay to carry with me all of my mistakes and successes.  But I also know that with the history of racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ageism and ableism, that some may not find this idea as comforting as I imagine for myself.