three cups of tea. or something.

My reaction to the news of Osama's assassination has been conflicted to say the least. Yes, I think he's an evil human being who bred hatred and unemotionally murdered thousands of innocent people.

Yes, I'm glad he's not on this planet any more.

Yes, I think he deserved to die for his sins in life. No question.

However, I'm so concerned and afraid that one man's death does not change the situation or emotions that caused 9-11 in the first place. It may, in fact, make it worse. For 10 years and two wars, that man and his cronies have been feeding the fire of hate against America and there's no doubt that even if we chopped off the head snake, this Medusa has hundreds more ready to step up and lead the hate brigade. Probably more violently and with less compassion than ever. That scares me.

We lost thousands of innocent people in New York. How many of our soldiers have died since then? More than 3000. How many of our soldiers, young people with families and futures and promise, come home injured? Missing limbs or struggling with the emotional travesties of war? How many innocent people - children, elderly, dogs, you name it - in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan have been injured or died? By some reports, tens of thousands. I don't know how to feel. I'm not rejoicing or relieved. I'm not angry. I'm scared. For the future. For my children.

I wish that there was some way to rewind the years and find some way to solve these issues with peace and love even though I know that's a full-on fucking pipe dream. But it's my wish, because I want my children and our soldiers' children and the children of the middle East to grow up in a world where they get to giggle and play games and learn and hug their parents and eat decent meals including an ice cream sundae every once in awhile and read as many books as they can and just...be. Is that too much to ask?

Which brings me to this. I read this incredible book called Three Cups of Tea about a month ago. It's about a man who was climbing K2 and got lost on his way down the mountain after a failed summit. He wandered into a town in Pakistan called Korphe where the villagers, who barely survive themselves, took him into their care and nursed him to health and to home. While he was there, he witnessed local children congregating on a flat, hard bit of earth scratching homework into the ground, in the cold mountain air with nary a teacher in site. And he was inspired to help them get a real school with real teachers, especially the girls who had never been allowed education before. Over the course of the book, he endures many hardships - living on a physician's assistant salary in northern California, squatting in hallways of hostels or living out of his car, kidnappings by the Taliban, having to hike the building materials for schools up mountain roads for 18 miles because the passageway became impassable to cars. It's a beautiful story and I love the message that by supporting the Pakistani and Afghani people by helping them get the basics - water, bridges, schools, etc. - you can really make a difference in how they view you, and us, and the world. Let's face it. We all want a few basic things in life: health, love, safety for our children, food, sleep, a roof over our heads, peace.

Hot tubs, diamonds, Porsches, Manolos, iPods...all that stuff is secondary and unnecessary if you have the basics, right? I loved this book and was full on ready to pledge my donations to his institute because I believed in the vision.

And then my belief in humanity was dashed thanks to a 60 Minutes expose that says Greg is a crook. Really?! Really? Really. Is he flying around in private jets and screwing these people in the name of greed? I can't believe it.  I keep hoping that it will all come around as a big misunderstanding that he needs to correct or clarify. Let's face it. I already sent my check and wrote this blog post, so in some ways I'm hoping most people didn't read it to the end. I'm totally willing to own my "sucker" status. It's well documented in life. But this? I want this to be a real thing. Something that leads to hope and peace and true global unity. (sorry. inner hippie is on a rampage today.)

It sounds like he's owning up to some creative license in the book (they did overtly disclaim that in the introduction to the book and I get the reasons why... more interesting story. hello.) so hopefully we'll find out that this little sprig of hope for our future and our common goal to make sure that people - all people - just get to live a happy, serene, fulfilled existence on this planet might still be an option! Either way, I'm keeping the book, and my hope.