Santa Cruz Sentinal

Saturday, January 26, 2008

It's in the hands of the mothers, of course

Natalie Costazna-Chavez, Grace Notes

It was far below freezing as we four women trudged along looking for Macky Auditorium on the University of Colorado, Boulder, campus. Macky is said to look like an old castle. We ping-ponged our eyes around until we spotted two huge buildings. We dubbed them The Witches Castle and Hogwarts, then amused ourselves by singing the "March of the Winkie Soldiers" from "Wizard of Oz" and wondering which castle was Macky.

We rounded a corner. "Oh, that castle's Macky," said Susan as hundreds of bundled people flooded the doors like beans poured through a funnel and filling a jar. Besides frigidity, the air was full of hurry-up-you're-missing-something frenzy. We stopped our methodical, semi-frozen, Winkie soldier march and hightailed it into the auditorium, quickly, like everyone else.

No, Barack wasn't speaking. And, no, it wasn't Mitt, or Hillary, or either of the Johns. It wasn't a musical performance, or a felon ex-CEO making a fortune on his incarceration story. The event was free, nothing was on sale, and, no one was giving away passes for the privilege to eventually buy a Wii.

Greg Mortenson, author of "Three Cups of Tea -- One Man's Mission to Promote Peace"¦ One School at a Time," was speaking. When my friend told me in early December that we were going, I'd never heard of the book and thought it might be about dreadful ladies lunching or manners or middle age. It's not.

I went to the bookstore three times to find it in stock. The third time I pulled it from beneath the chin of a sales clerk carrying a stack of the just unwrapped volumes to the "best seller" shelves. His arms were half-empty by the time he arrived; I followed him and watched people politely snatch the book from his dwindling stack.

Mr. Mortenson's book has been on The New York Times' best-seller list for 49 weeks. The day I wrote this column, it was No. 3. Macky Auditorium, with a sold-out crowd of 2,000, was the biggest venue Mr. Mortenson had ever taken on. I suspect that's about to change.

The Central Asia Institute, founded by Mr. Mortenson, builds schools for children in remote villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan. One school costs less than a new VW Beetle. He has, firmly and absolutely, no political or religious agenda. His only agenda is literacy.

Why literacy for little kids who have no shoes and live in mountains so high and remote, just traveling to them can be nearly impossible? Because of jihad. Jihad can be defined as holy war, but that's just part of the definition. It can also mean a spiritual quest, or a journey toward education, or a profession. Under Islam, a young man must ask for the blessing of his mother to go on jihad. Guess what? When mamas are educated, the health and the health of their families improve. And, when mamas are educated, overwhemingly, they say NO to their sons who ask for blessings to join the Taliban.

Of course they say no. Mr. Mortenson, along with many thousands of good Pakistani and Afghanistan people long ago, figured that out. He is now trying to teach the rest of us. When the book was accepted for publication, the higher-ups planned to add the subtitle "One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism, One School at a Time." Mr. Mortenson told them he didn't want the T word in his title, that his book was not about terrorism, and that he was tired of the emphasis, in our country, on fear.

They said the book wouldn’t sell without the T word. So, he made a deal if the book went to paperback, it would be reprinted with the subtitle he wanted – “One Man’s Journey to Promote Peace…One School at a Time.” They agreed.

The T word has long since been dropped.

There is an answer to this mess we're in. And, since almost none of our countries' leaders have asked us, individually, to do a whole hoot of anything constructive in the last decade, perhaps we could start asking each other.

Read this book. Remember God is nondenominational. You'll remember small things change the world. You'll remember we're all the same. And, you'll be filled with something you're missing -- big hope.

Find out more at www.ikat.org or www.penniesforpeace.org.

Natalie Costanza-Chavez lives in Colorado. She writes her column on spirituality for papers in the West. Contact her at Grace-notes@comcast.net. and read more columns at www.gracenotescolumn.org