Three Cups of Tea

I'm sure most of the literate world discovered this book years ago, and I am simply behind the curve. Darden does that to you.

I first heard about Three Cups of Tea from my father. He and my mother are voracious readers, and we spend hours upon hours talking about the books we discover. Not having a TV (ever) will do that for you. My parents are the ones who taught me about Michael Pollan years ago, and I remember spending one Christmas Day curled up on our purple couch tearing through The Botany of Desire and vowing to never eat a potato again. Oh, the irony.

I remember my dad talking about Mortensen's book this summer, proclaiming: "I read this book, kid, and in the end I thought to myself 'if only the rest of the world could think this way.'." Wow. If my father in his numerous decades on his earth thought that highly of a book and its premise, I should skedaddle out and get it!

Lizzie loaned it to me last night, and I am already halfway through it. One quote keeps coming back to remind me of why I do what I do:

"It may seem absurd to believe that a 'primitive' culture in the Himalaya has anything to teach our industrialized society. But our search for a future that works keeps spiraling back to an ancient connection between ourselves and the earth, an interconnectedness that ancient cultures have never abandoned." - Helena Norberg-Hodge

To my Darden schoolwork, waiting to be completed on this 70-degree Sunday I say: "Buzz off, you will wait until I finish my Tea."

(photos copyright of Jamie McGuiness from project-himalaya website)