Three Cups of Tea

If you only read one book in 2008, make it Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. It is the true story of his attempt to climb K2, only to fail, but find his calling as a builder of schools in remote Northern Pakistan. Not only is this a riveting story, it throws into sharp relief the failures of our "War on Terror." Mortenson understood very early on that education was the key to peace in the region. Even more, he understood that educating girls held the key to social change.

I had the privilege of hearing him speak a couple of weeks ago, before I had read the book, and he quoted a proverb to the effect that "If you educate a boy, you educate an individual; if you educate a girl, you educate a village." Needless to say, educating girls in some of the more extreme Muslim communities was not always a popular idea. Mortenson has had two fatwahs issued against him, he was kidnapped and caught in a firefight in Afghanistan, where he has continued his school-building in recent years.

I am in awe of the work that he has done almost single-handedly. One of the most impressive parts of what he has done is that he not only builds the schools, he buys supplies and pays or makes sure that teachers are paid. He has more than 60 schools that he keeps up and running - through earthquakes, bombings, landslides and human failures.

Mortenson himself is a self-effacing, shy person. He comes across as an ordinary person who has been able to make a difference. In reality, he is an absolutely extraordinary person, who could be a role model for all of us. Hearing him speak, I felt that he educated the audience to the truths of the history and politics of the Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan region in a way that was both powerful and believable. If only he could have educated the Bush regime before they started bombing the region into oblivion.

The Peace Abbey awarded Greg the Courage of Conscience Award, and indeed, he lives the courage of his convictions every single day. He has joined Atticus Finch in my pantheon of heros. They are two men, one real, one fictional, who live their lives according to the highest principles of compassion and justice. I would like to see every school in our country adopt his book as required reading for students before they graduate.