Think of the children!!

Finally finished Three Cups of Tea! What a great book. Mortenson's faith in education as a path to peace is irresistible and compelling. From the beginning, I've felt that one of the most important parts of tackling environmental problems is to improve education in order to prevent new generations from driving the problem further. By reading that book, this idea has expanded to include the problems that plague impoverished rural and urban areas, not only in the Middle East but around the world; economic dead-ends, marginalization, illiteracy, crime, violence. Kids I worked with at summer camp came from dangerous neighborhoods, but a week in the woods was somehow enough to change the perspective they had of their own future. A thing to be built, not shackled to. Likewise, kids born into our hyper-consumptive society are given only one model of living, and without help, the struggle to create a more sustainable livelihood can be overwhelming. Our world needs and deserves much more. You can bail out a sinking ship, but you have to plug the damn hole first!

I've started with Barbara Kingsolver today. The first thing I notice is that she's an excellent storyteller. Her descriptions and reflections of the Tucson landscape are elegantly simple; she calls the cacti "denizens of deprivation" and describes " the sensory extravagance of red hot chili peppers and five-alarm sunsets", drawing any reader almost effortlessly closer. It's such a privilege to read good writing. Sometimes words fit together like puzzle pieces, and their harmonious connection is as plain as poetry.

So Mortenson labors on in the distant peaks of the Karakoram, while Kingsolver strikes out on her adventure to live simply. To live on the land, like Mortenson's friends along the Braldu. These authors somehow sit on different sides of the same coin. Mortenson planting seeds of development, and Kingsolver refusing the produce of industry. A well-to-do American, rejecting her own American Dream. Education, development, yes! - but business, affluence, no. Our middle ground lies somewhere in between.