THREE CUPS OF TEA: ONE MAN'S MISSION TO PROMOTE PEACE, ONE SCHOOL AT A TIME
i'm still reading, i promise! this book club is not getting its wings off the ground. notsomuch. how to motivate the members??? well, we are currently reading three cups of tea, which is fantastically inspiring. makes one want to do something significant for humanity. i have a couple more books warming the bench, if you will. perhaps i'll tackle them by my lonesome. or by my good friend, carolina. except she's leaving for nairobi soon. to do something significant for humanity.
greg mortenson was a nurse. is a nurse. which is good. because i was wondering if my decision to pursue nursing may not be worthwhile. but reading about how this particular skill set has served him well in his work of passion, of his calling, i am reassured. i was beginning to think, what's the use of a master's in i/o psych when i haven't used it, would echo in my ears, years down the road, as i think, what's the use of a nursing degree when i haven't used it...
the trick is, i just have to use them. and i've been working on figuring out how. because i want to do something significant for humanity. because i want to make a difference. because i want to make my God proud.
check out my response to our book club discussion topic w/c i also posted on amazon.com
update: 12/24/07
why do sherpas get shafted?
this is Tenzing Norgay, the first man to summit Mt. Everest, in my book.
i don't know much about mountaineering, but having just read three cups of tea i of course have contracted heightened awareness. i'm currently watching the discovery channel. there's a special on climbing mount everest. i just don't get the point of these americans, europeans, other foreigners, trying to 'summit', when the sherpas are the ones carrying them (often literally) up to the peaks.
so why did i know, with my trusty rusty memory, that sir edmund hillary was first to reach the top of mt. everest, but the name, Tenzing Norgay, i'd never heard of until i did a recent google search?
these sherpas are amazing and i feel so bad for them. yeah, they make up to four times more than the average person in their country. but why am i so angry for them?
and incidentally, why do i feel so bad when i see people laboring over a crappy job but admittedly feel a lack of sympathy when i see beggars on the street (not that i don't sometimes feel convicted into throwing them some change)? well, i do know why. it's just interesting. i once saw a man standing at the foot of one of chicago's infamous el stops carrying a stack of streetwise, and i couldn't have been more proud of him.
update: 12/29/07
i don't remember ever having a reaction quite like the one i had at the news of benazir bhutto's death.
more than once, i've heard people ask each other, 'do you remember where you were and what you were doing on the day such and such happened, or so and so died?' i always thought it was a bit odd that i never could. there is only a couple i can think of off the top of my head, of major historical events i really remember in this way. one was the beating of rodney king. and shamefully, i only remember the moment because i was made to feel embarrassed that i hadn't heard about what had happened to rodney king. i was standing next to my locker the day after the incident, and my classmate asked me if i'd heard, and i said no i hadn't, and he looked at me like i was an idiot, and pretty much also said as much. the other was 9-11. because, well, i'd never seen anything like it. and i had friends and family in the area over whom i was worried sick. and then they thought they might lock us down at work, because we are a healthcare company that provides medical supplies to the red cross and also produces vaccines against certain biological weapons.
i wonder if i've entered a new stage in my life, one that hopefully will be spent in a much more selfless capacity. all of a sudden it seems i'm interested in people, places, and things that are beyond my immediate line of sight. i'm reading non-fiction, for one thing, and the effects are staggering to say the least.
my heart actually stopped for a moment as i gasped audibly, cupping my hand over my mouth, when i read the headline noting bhutto's death. WHY??? why does pakistan need any more misery? why does good encounter so much bad? why is hope continually challenged by despair? (i know why, really, but knowing doesn't provide much solace.)
i don't remember ever having a reaction quite like the one i had at the news of Benazir Bhutto's death.
