Three Cups of Tea

I’ve told our H.R. manager that the initial “T” on the dealer plates that I’ve been issued by The Autobarn stands for “tough old bird”.

In my 62 years, I’ve lost jobs, had close experiences with life-threatening illnesses, crashed on the way to Hell, been robbed in China, suffered numerous financial hardships, and I currently owe the I.R.S. almost as much as I paid for my first house.

In spite of all that, though, I’m probably one of the most optimistic people that you’ll ever met.

I’ve also read hundreds of books in my lifetime, and until this morning, I don’t remember reading ANY that brought tears to my eyes.

In May of this year, I read Greg Mortenson’s second book, Stones into Schools, and published a post about the book on this blog site on May 16. As I finished reading his first one, Three Cups of Tea, this morning, the closing pages brought tears to my eyes simply due to the fact that his story, and the initial success of some of his students, is simply unbelievable



When it was first published, in 2006, the book was the #1 best seller for 14 straight weeks on the New York Times book list. Since its publication, it has been required reading for freshman, honors or campus-wide reading in over eighty universities, and hundreds of schools. It is also required reading for senior U.S. military commanders, Pentagon officers in counter-insurgency training, and Special Forces deploying to Afghanistan.

As of today’s date, Mortenson’s company, the Central Asia Institute, has built 141 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Arguably, he is the one person who is the MOST responsible for peace in that part of the world.

None of us would be willing to endure the sacrifices that this modern day peace keeper has endured over the years (including being kidnapped by the Taliban), but we CAN make a contribution to world peace at a far lower cost. All you need to do is click on the link below:

Three Cups of Tea

Believe me when I tell you that even a $10 contribution will do a LOT more for peace in Afghanistan than a $5,000,000 Predator missile.

If you only read one book for the rest of the year, make sure that it’s this one.