Some of the pieces of his story that I found most remarkable were:
- the determination he showed to complete his goals and keep his promises despite MANY obstacles
- the relationships he formed with his "second family" of Pakistanis thousands of miles from his home
- the way that he integrated himself into a completely foreign culture and came to love it
- his efforts to share his personal story and knowledge of Muslim people post-9/11 in an attempt to diffuse the hatred that was seeping into Americans' culture for this "enemy"
We discussed the book in a book club gathering last night (accompanied by a delicious Pakistani meal!), and one of the questions/comments that arose was a general admiration for Mortenson's complete faith in his mission and his choice to give up most material possessions in order to achieve this mission. I think it's a very real tension that is becoming more apparent as we face the deterioration of our economy and a serious reduction in opportunities for people to "get rich" in the ways that have worked for the past 15 years or so. What is the price of doing humanitarian work? Does the benefit outweigh the cost? Is there a happy medium? Where does idealism meet reality in our financially-based society?
I have some thoughts on this trade-off, which I'll share in a subsequent post because it's a topic that I'm pretty interested in and passionate about ... and I could ramble on, making this the longest post ever! But, for now, read the book! I hope you will love it and be inspired.
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1 comment:
I know there is supposed to be a certain online etiquette pertaining to the blogosphere but I am going to commit an offense of not directly commenting on the subject matter of your post because I have not read the book about this guy setting up schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. There is a rapper that I have heard that is building schools over there who goes by the nom de guerre Immortal Technique. Of course by admitting that I wasn't going to comment on the aforesaid post I have commented on the post and have committed no offense. Honestly, I would like to have a conversation with you sometime. I am not astounded I couldn't lure you away from your studies with my library ploy-- although, it is a great exhibit. Still more unlikely is getting you to accompany me on a boat ride around Boston Harbor and some of the Islands or gawking at some of the penguins at the aquarium. They do some good work at the aquarium-- scrubbing penguins that fell victim to oil spills -- thousands and thousands of them hand scrubbed.
I just got done reading George Gissing's Demos: A Story of English Socialism. It's a novel about a socialist who inherits money from a deceased relative and tries to create a new business model that is employee-centric. He destroys some English fields and builds industrial factories where workers can live in a new community and be paid decent wages. It is a fascinating character study. It shows the deterioration of this man's ethics system.
Perhaps I will hear from you. God(186,000 mps) speed in your endeavors.
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