Three Cups of Tea - or One Big Foot in My Mouth

I usually overeat at book club meetings – things like Kristen’s baklava are just too irresistible. For our next meeting, however, I won’t be eating any food because my foot has been firmly placed in my mouth. Why, you wonder? Because having only read (and then reread) the first 70 pages of Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin I made a total judgment of the entire book - I pretty much trashed it. But I couched my trashing with, “I love the message, I agree with what Mortenson was trying to do but I can’t stand the hero worship on the part of the author and the lack of responsibility Mortenson shows in the beginning.”

Well, I should have kept reading… and I’m so glad I did. I’m not sure if the writing style suddenly changed after the first 70 pages or if the enthusiasm and passion of my fellow book club members spurred me on… but when I got home from book club I picked up the book and started reading it again. Sure there are things that I, as an editor, would have taken out or done differently with the book, but overall I am heartened by this book in a way I haven’t been since March, 2003 when the US began Operation Iraqi Freedom. Maybe there is a way to make a difference in the lives of people – and it isn’t by forcing our values and way of life onto others – but to provide them with access to education that will help them see the good in others.

At the same time, we in America need to continue building understanding toward others. After watching a CNN feed of the bombing in Baghdad, Brigadier General Bashir Bas of Pakistan tells Mortenson, “You have to attack the source of your enemy’s strength. In America’s case, that’s not Osama or Saddam or anyone else. The enemy is ignorance. The only way to defeat it is to build relationships with these people, to draw them into the modern world with education and business. Otherwise the fight will go on forever” (p. 310). Could we just try working on things that way for once? Please?!

So, if you promise to try to wade through the first 70 pages of Three Cups of Tea and then take the message to heart, I’ll try and swallow the foot I earlier placed in my mouth.