“A river is made drop by drop.”
Buttigieg attributes this metaphorical image to an Afghan proverb. It is a reflection of other proverbial imagery that is suggestive that something larger can only be constructed one small section at a time, such as each journey begins with the first step. It is particularly resonant of the central theme of the book which can adjusted to fit the proverb: changing the world starts at home. Buttigieg returned to South Bend when his future potential was wide open. He went home to start changing the world one step—or drop—at a time.
Mike Pence
Buttigieg engages a word to describe the nature of the relationship of Mike Pence to Donald Trump which is not often viewed as metaphor. Anathema has evolved into a word that has been simplified to be synonymous with something that is detestable. The original meaning of the word, however, was quite specific: it was a formalized ritualistic curse upon a priest for heresy that required the punishment of being excommunicated. And in hitching himself to the thoroughly unprincipled Donald Trump, Mike Pence—whose entire political image was constructed on moral turpitude—had committed the equivalence of heresy and, to many Americans, lost any credibility in the future to speak with any authority on questions of morality:
“And while Trump’s life story was anathema to everything Mike Pence believed in, this was the right move for Pence, too, if viewed in the cynical light of raw politics.”
Love Story
Part of what makes Buttigieg’s success story so incredible is that he is openly gay. Just running for President would have been unthinkable as little as a decade earlier, but to actually becoming at one time the front-runner is almost beyond all belief. His description of what it feels like to find love is one of the simplest but most beautiful metaphors in the book:
"So warm is the blanket of love in that household, wrapped around Chasten and me both, that I struggle to visualize the darkness of a time in which he did not feel welcome there".
When Politicians Read
Not all politicians read. Not only can Buttigieg read, but he can write. Not only did he actually write his book instead of hiring a ghostwriter, but while a student there, he became an editor of the Oxford International Review:
“Good policy, like good literature, takes personal lived experience as its starting point.”
A Nice Guy
At the time Buttigieg made his run for President in 2020, it had already been almost forgotten that not only did politicians not have to be childish name-calling hooligans, many actually had the capacity to be nice guys. Buttigieg himself almost forgot when for a moment he allowed himself to get caught up in the zeitgeist of turning political discourse into a playground filled with semi-literate punks finding humor in the most offensive of nicknames. Whether Mayor Pete’s lapse into playground antics qualifies as actually being mere metaphor or literal is up for debate, even for Buttigieg himself, but at least he later regained his credibility by apologizing:
“It had been on my mind ever since allowing myself to call President Trump a "draft-dodging chickenhawk" during one of the DNC forums. While true, that statement was not in keeping which how I publicly speak about political figures, or anyone else, and afterward I reflected that this president was inspiring a loss of decency not just in his supporters but also in those of us who opposed him.”
