When I first saw Barack Obama’s health care ad about his mother dying of cancer at the age of 53, I had to replay it on the DVR and I sat there in an eerie silence, knowing that my mother also died of cancer at 53.
For most people that would be a shared coincidence. But my whole life is a cosmic coincidence with Barack, because it turns out that we were born 5 hours apart on this day 47 years ago.
I always felt that I was born into destiny, but now I realize I was in the wrong line on 8/4/61...my wife jokes that I was in the express line.
On one hand it is an interesting insight to realize you have a some shared cultural and historical experiences that have influenced the, hopefully, the next President of the United States. On the other hand, I feel miserably inferior when I try and measure my level of accomplishments with the only other person I have ever met (and I have met him a few times) that was born on the very same day as myself.
Because of this coincidence, I have put a little extra effort into understanding Barack’s "back-story" to find parallels. We seemed to have shared the same (more of less) level drug experimentation in high school. We both suffered huge personal turmoil at the age of 2—I lost a brother, his father left him. We both lost a parent in 1982—his father died and my mother died. But of course there are many differences—my father was not the son of a Kenyan goat herder. Even though we both lost our mothers at fifty-three, my mother was thirty-four; his was nineteen, when we were born—so we faced that tragedy at different stages in our lives. And mostly importantly, I lived in a homogenous suburban neighborhood and he is the poster child for multiculturalism.
But in a bigger picture, we are both generational "cuspers" born at the edge of the Baby Boom Generation, impacted by the 60’s but to young to understand the events of the time and to old to understand the Gen X phenomenon. And in reading "The Audacity of Hope" and listening to some of his speeches, his call for change is deeply rooted in his—and my—dissatisfaction with the endless ideological conflicts rooted in the 60’s, symbolized by John Kerry, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as students of Yale during this period.
So when I hear the call for change, I see it through the filter of someone of my age—literally—who shares the same liberal values, but is not satisfied with the solutions and the outcomes that the previous generation of liberal leaders gave us. When I see Barack’s tendencies to develop consensus or his resistance not to take unequivocal positions on critical issues, I interpret it as a recognition that he shares the liberal ideals concerning an issue, but is not convinced that the conventional progressive solutions are the complete solution. Although, that’s me and I could totally be wrong.
I did have a chance to meet Barack in November of 2006 at a book signing and asked him if he ever met anyone born on the very same day as him? Like most people, he was momentarily taken a back and said "no I have not". I was in a book signing line, so I could say very little else. But I would wager to guess, that I am the only person that has a signed copy of "The Audacity of Hope" with 8/4/61 also inscribed by him and I’d certainly bet that I’m the only person (other than Barack) that was born on 8/4/61 with such a copy.
So anyone else out there born on 8/4/61 or had the chance to meet someone born on the very same day—other than a twin?