I finished a big book today, the first time I've finished reading one in a while: Truman by David McCullough. I was emotionally moved upon completing it. And I can say I learned so much from this biography—incredible history (and the importance of always learning more history), but also insight into how to be good, how to be great, and how to live a life well lived.

Harry Truman may not have been our smartest President, but he worked hard and acted on principle (during his entire political career, not just during his time in the White House), in some of the most consequential times in United States history. I feel lucky he was our President at the close of World War II, the dawn of the Nuclear Age, and the birth of the United Nations. He served, as politicians ought to do—to the best of his ability.

It's been said reading enables us to live many lives. I think that's true. There's a unique feeling you encounter when racing through the final pages, eager to finish, but at the same time, dreading it being over. It can be emotional finishing a book, and it stimulates the mind, but I feel it's also almost a spiritual experience, especially when transversing the barrier of time and communing with the dead.

Thank you for your incredible service President Truman. And thank you David McCullough for writing a wonderful book.