Just Read It
I know 2008 is still an infant, but I can't imagine reading another book this year that can top Three Cups of Tea. The style it is written in is not exceptional by any means, but the story...the story is one of the most stirring, riveting, and potentially life-changing ones I've read in a long time.
Greg Mortenson failed at climbing K2, which is the second highest mountain in the world and by most accounts the hardest to climb. A story about the baddest mountain on earth would be good in and of itself, but as one door closes the true story begins. Mortenson gets lost after descending K2 and wanders into a village not on any maps. The people care for him and befriend him. He vows to return and repay them by building a much needed school. For the next year he struggles as an ER nurse and failed climber to raise money for some no-name village in Pakistan, a village of Muslims. Since Sir Edmund Hillary's conquest of Everest in 1953, the climbing community has reached out to the villages of the Tibetan area, villages of Buddhists, but nobody had ever tried to help the villages of the western Himalaya. Through a lot of dead-ends, tea-drinking, and perseverance Mortenson gets the school built. Over the next decade he is instrumental in building over 50 schools in Pakistan and forming friendships with high ranking Muslim officials as well as the common villager. As the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and Muslim Jihadists threatened his work by constructing madrassas and proclaiming fatwas on him, Mortenson kept focused on his proactive work. He knew that educating the children, especially the girls, was the key to peace in that part of the world. After 9/11 things got really hot and interesting for him, but he did not give up or abandon Pakistan or Afghanistan. Today there are over 15,000 young adults and children who can thank Mortenson for his hard work, generosity, and self-sacrificial spirit that enabled them to get the education they needed.
This book reminds us that: being proactive is better than being reactive; all humans are created in the image of God; no Muslims are born as extreme militants; you don't have to be rich to make a difference; when you fight fire with fire, everyone gets burned; don't wait around on the government or legislation to change things; when you throw mud at a group that is different than you, you lose a lot of ground; education and relationships can lead to understanding and peace; good things happen when we get out of our comfort zones and aren't consumed with ourselves.
Read it. I don't know what Greg Mortenson's personal beliefs are. I really don't care. He is doing more in the war on terrorism than any bomb ever could.
http://www.threecupsoftea.com/
Greg Mortenson failed at climbing K2, which is the second highest mountain in the world and by most accounts the hardest to climb. A story about the baddest mountain on earth would be good in and of itself, but as one door closes the true story begins. Mortenson gets lost after descending K2 and wanders into a village not on any maps. The people care for him and befriend him. He vows to return and repay them by building a much needed school. For the next year he struggles as an ER nurse and failed climber to raise money for some no-name village in Pakistan, a village of Muslims. Since Sir Edmund Hillary's conquest of Everest in 1953, the climbing community has reached out to the villages of the Tibetan area, villages of Buddhists, but nobody had ever tried to help the villages of the western Himalaya. Through a lot of dead-ends, tea-drinking, and perseverance Mortenson gets the school built. Over the next decade he is instrumental in building over 50 schools in Pakistan and forming friendships with high ranking Muslim officials as well as the common villager. As the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and Muslim Jihadists threatened his work by constructing madrassas and proclaiming fatwas on him, Mortenson kept focused on his proactive work. He knew that educating the children, especially the girls, was the key to peace in that part of the world. After 9/11 things got really hot and interesting for him, but he did not give up or abandon Pakistan or Afghanistan. Today there are over 15,000 young adults and children who can thank Mortenson for his hard work, generosity, and self-sacrificial spirit that enabled them to get the education they needed.
This book reminds us that: being proactive is better than being reactive; all humans are created in the image of God; no Muslims are born as extreme militants; you don't have to be rich to make a difference; when you fight fire with fire, everyone gets burned; don't wait around on the government or legislation to change things; when you throw mud at a group that is different than you, you lose a lot of ground; education and relationships can lead to understanding and peace; good things happen when we get out of our comfort zones and aren't consumed with ourselves.
Read it. I don't know what Greg Mortenson's personal beliefs are. I really don't care. He is doing more in the war on terrorism than any bomb ever could.
http://www.threecupsoftea.com/
posted by CHUSKA NATIVES at
1:52 PM
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