Tea and Literacy

There aren't enough hours in a day. Tired as I am from work during the week, I never fail read and write just a little before I go to bed to unwind after a long day of expending too much energy. As a result of the fatigue from teaching and talking and training for a half-marathon, it took me some 4 nights to finish Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, which Ellen Revelle had recommended at her tea with Revelle Seniors and anyone-else-who-was-lucky-enough-to-sign-up-but-wasn't-a-senior. Well, I loved the book, and I think I'll send Mrs. Revelle a thank-you card for the recommendation.

The book is about Mortenson's ambitious objective to bring peace to Pakistan and Afghanistan through education. The man failed to reach the summit of K2 and wandered into a poor, remote village of Korphe in Pakistan where he was welcomed by the community, despite his being an "infidel". To repay their kindness, Mortenson promised to build Korphe a school. This he did, but didn't stop there. One school in Korphe turned into fifty-five schools all over some of the most remote places in Pakistan and Afghanistan, even though the Taliban and post-9/11-anti-Muslim sentiment in America made it ever-harder for Mortenson to find support for his cause.

Recently I've been thinking a lot about education and literacy. Here in many parts of America, we take these things for granted, particularly literacy. The sad thing is that I encounter more and more people who tell me that they hate reading or that they'd rather get their information from TV or the Internet. Don't get me wrong, I love the Internet too (blogging, yay!) - the tv not as much. I always feel so sad whenever people tell me that they hate reading or they hate books, because it makes me wonder how often they think about what a huge privilege literacy is. People in poverty-stricken areas in the US and even outside in places like Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, etc don't have the kind of access to language and ideas that literate people are entitled to. I find it more than a little bit ridiculous that people who have the liberty of words and language don't really value it, while there are millions upon millions of people who DO want and need it.

I really admire and applaud people like Greg Mortenson who understand the value of education and the wonders it can do for people's lives. It opens doors of opportunities and minds to new perspectives. The world becomes bigger and more hostile and more beautiful. Change and progress, in particular, don't seem so impossible or so threatening.

My Humanities professor said at the end of the quarter, "The age of books is ending." I not-so-secretly hope that it never does. I love the comfort I feel with a good book between my hands, whatever it may be. I can only fervently dream that people who say that they hate reading think twice about what they're saying and realize the leverage they have.