Mountains Beyond Mountains

Ah, a neglected freshmen reading requirement. I scoffed at the back cover description. Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder"... account how one man [Paul Farmer] can make a difference in solving global health problems..." Immediately, almost unconciously, I was hesitant to show any interest or empathy in social justice, because the danger of caring for one thing is that you must care for it all. Acknowlege sickness and poverty in one child, multiply by millions across nations? It was a path I did not to begin on, because I feared where it would lead. I did not read the book, and instead wrote it off as preachy.

Obviously I was wrong. And now that I've finished off the read, I can say that it is not a feel-good biography... but rather a hopeful challenge: to stay engaged with the world and do what you can and more. I would love to just rattle one quote off after another. But instead I will say this: I want to have the courage to care, and care deeply, about patterns of life that are radically different, yet more common place, from my own.

And about going down a path of empathy? Ok, maybe one quote, or rather paraphrase. Paul Farmer, at some point on a hike to visit a patient in Haiti, says he has aligned himself with the historical "losers": the world's poor. By accepting this battle, he knows it is probably a life time of defeat, but he must still fight to win. This past month I have been crewing (working backstage) for one of UT's musicals The Man of La Mancha. If anyone is familiar with the show, this is the sole ballad of knight errant, Don Quioxite (character and plot based on the famous peice of literature by Cervantes). In order to battle the evil of his world, Quixote goes insane. Yet the audience knows, it is not Quixote, but the world that is probably mad. Paul Farmer challenges orthodox ways of doing things, approaches infectious disease and health care from new angles, and doesn't accept anything has "just the way things are." To dream, the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe...