One of my VERY favorite new listening experiences in the past month has been the discovery of Joanne Freeman. I spend a fair amount of time longing to BE Joanne Freeman at this point, while steadfastly reminding myself of the Oscar Wilde quote that one of the speakers used at my college graduation: "Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken," and yes, that includes the estimable Ms. Freeman. Darn it.
Why is she so awesome? I could just tell you that she's funny, smart, enthusiastic and cheerful, and I would not be lying. But instead I'm going to quote my best Joanne Freeman story about herself. Actually, it's the only story I've ever heard her tell about herself, and she does not tell it in the online lecture course-- she told it at another online event. (I have yet to be disappointed with any of these, BTW.) So, when she was fourteen, it was the bicentennial of the United States, and she being the geeky teenager she was, was reading through the biographies of the founding fathers. But when she got to Alexander Hamilton's biography, she found it unsatisfying, so she asked for a recommendation from her public librarian. The public librarian pointed her to the 27-volume set of Alexander Hamilton's collected correspondence, and she proceeded to read it through the way I read scriptures: once you finish one read, you have to go back for another immediately.
You will perhaps see why it was not surprising that she ended up with a PhD in history, teaching at one of the oldest/best institutions in the country. I think that my favorite part of her really is her delight. She always seems to be genuinely happy to be talking to students, or audiences; she loves to answer questions; she chortles when she brings in a great story or especially wonderful primary source document. I'm not quite sure if it's because of a) genetics, b) gratitude that she got to study and now teach something she genuinely loves, c) the fact that her subject area is a time of history when people REALLY thought things might not work out, and then they pretty much did for the next 200 years, or d) upbringing-- but whatever it is, I find her extreme cheer to be one of the most cheering things I have encountered in a long time.
