One Nation by Ben Carson

Ben Carson was the commencement speaker at Palm Beach Atlantic University a few years ago so my Dad got me this book to read. I thought that I might learn a few things, especially as many of the things that I’ve seen in politics recently have been divisive. A book about unification and understanding others was a book that I greatly enjoyed. I love being able to understand people as best I can and Ben Carson did a great job sharing his experiences with a variety of people.

In the beginning of the book, the author shared something that his Mom used to tell him when he tried to give an excuse for something. He shared the belief that I hold close to heart — we have control over almost everything in our lives.

Pg. xviii, And I had a mother who would never allow herself to be a victim no matter what happened… never made excuses, and she never accepted an excuse from us. If we ever came up with an excuse, she always said, “Do you have a brain?” And if the answer was yes, then she said, “Then you could have thought your way out of it.”

There are many things that we can do in this world but God created each of us for a unique purpose, what is yours? Or maybe a better question is the following:

Pg. xxi, What we need to start thinking about is, how do we solve problems?