The Sunday Salon: Still sipping three cups of tea

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What I read for today’s Sunday Salon:

Today, as I discussed earlier, I focused on Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations…One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I’m reading it as part of a group on Book Blogs at Ning called Travel The World (From A Comfy Chair), now am more than halfway through the book and still enjoying it.

I didn’t delve into the The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri as part of The Orbis Terrarum (or The Whole World) Challenge as I thought. Neither did I did get to any of the graphic novels which I planned, although I still may get to any of them, including the Camilleri, by the end. Again, coincidentally, Bethany at B & b ex libris created both the aforementioned challenge and group.

I did get caught up on a project on which I’ve been working, even if I didn’t get done as much reading as I wanted to get done. I’m not finished with the project (editing a guide book for a neighbor; for which I’m getting paid), but I’m feeling like I’ll be able to get it finished by Thursday (the deadline).

About Three Cups of Tea

When the porcelain bowls of scalding butter tea steamed in their hands, Haji Ali spoke. “If you want to thrive in Baltisan, yoiu must respect our ways,” Haji Ali said, blowing on his bowl.”The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die,” he said, laying his hand warmly on Mortenson’s own. “Doctor Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea. We have lived and survived here for a long time.”

That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I’ve learned in my life,” Mortenson says.”We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. We’re the country of thirty-nine minute power lunches and two-minute football drills. Our leaders thought their ’shock and awe’ campaign could end the war in Iraq before it even started. Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them.”

Here, of course, is from where the title for the book came: a conversation between Haji Ali, the leader of the first of more than 50 Pakistani villages in which Mortenson helps to build 50 schools. At the time, Mortenson was in a rush to get started on the school that he had promised he would have built in that first village, Korphe, and this was Haji Ali’s answer to him.

It is a lesson I believe those of us who are Americans especially need to learn. Too often we rush from here to there, never connecting with anyone. On a small scale, even at the supermarket (of course, we live in a smalltown, so it’s easier to do this), my wife and I try to slow down and talk to the checkout people, especially when they’re the only ones there. Sometimes those little connections can mean so much.

Links I saved this week to share with y’all:

• A list of Sunday Salon participants bookmarked on del.icio.us – 154 here, I know some of you might be missing, especially with the group growing. If your blog is one of those I missed, feel free to e-mail me at unfinishedperson (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll be sure to add it to the list
• The Rory Gilmore Reading List on The Novel World: I have another friend here online who really is “into” The Gilmore Girls and when I saw this, I knew I had to pass this to her. If anyone of you enjoy the show, you may find this interesting.
• Books on the Nightstand: Book Recommendations, Blog and Podcast by Michael Kindness and Ann Kingman. As they explain on the site, they “are friends and colleagues who work in the publishing industry. That means that we talk about books all day long to other people who love to talk about books. But sometimes, those conversations have to end before we’re ready to stop talking. Thus, this blog.” I haven’t had a chance to explore yet, but from what little I’ve read there, I’ve enjoyed.
• Overbooked: A Resource for Readers by Ann Chambers Theis aka the Overbooked. She is the collection management administrator for the Chesterfield County Public Library in Virginia and provides the site as a resource for “ravenous readers” with “special efforts made to alert readers to books that they may not become aware of via other book-related resources.” I found this through Stumbleupon and really haven’t had the chance to explore here either yet, but I thought I’d pass it along anyway.
• Stevie Nicks singing Dave Matthews Band song “Crash into Me” shared by Planet Books: I love Stevie Nicks, always have, always will and this version is just great.
• Unshelved: The Library Comic Strip shared by Christine at She Reads Books
• A site called Lists of Bests shared by Rebecca Reid
  

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Tags: Books, Lists of Bests, Overbooked, Stevie Nicks, The Gilmore Girls, The Sunday Salon, Three Cups of Tea, Unshelved