I'm not sure where I first spied this book, but I am sure I purchased it because it was written by Tracy Kidder. Kidder wrote Home Town, a much thicker book, which I picked up some years ago on one of my expeditions to Barnes and Noble. Home Town is the story of a town in New England and its residents, primarily about a young policeman and his life in the town. See http://www.bookpage.com/9905bp/tracy_kidder.html for a nicely-written interview by Ellen Kanner with Tracy Kidder. Although Home Town is factual, it reads like a novel, and I found myself involved in the lives of Kidder's subjects. The book was memorable.
I purchased Mountains Beyond Mountains based solely on the fact that Kidder was the author, with little or no thought to the subject matter or to the fact that Kidder later received a Pulitzer for another book he wrote. For more information on Kidder, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracy_Kidder.
Mountains Beyond Mountains is about Paul Farmer, a current-day American who has devoted his life to health care for the poor - primarily in Haiti, and primarily in an effort to control and hopefully eradicate TB. I had never heard of Farmer before I read this book.
In the beginning of the book, Kidder describes Farmer's growing up years in a non-typical family situation, reminding me a lot of Jeanette Walls' story in her memoir, The Glass Castle, also a most interesting and worthy read. Kids from "underprivileged" environments don't always end up as adults living in poverty - or worse, jail.
Farmer is nothing short of genius, and he has used his life in a single-minded, devoted effort to make a significant difference in health care for the poor. To understand the story, you must read the book - and I doubt that anyone who reads it will feel they have wasted any of the time it took. The story is life-changing.
As I read the book, I kept wondering about this fellow. What makes him tick? For myself, I think he's living out his understanding of the Bible in every breath he takes. Every reason he gives for doing what he does goes back to some reference in the Bible. In one quote, Kidder recounts this explanation from Farmer:
In another passage, Farmer quotes and then paraphrases an ending to Matthew 25:All the great religious traditions of the world say, Love thy neighbor as thyself. My answer is, I'm sorry, I can't, but I'm gonna keep on trying... (page 213 of the 2004 Random House Trade Paperback Edition)
Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me ... Then it says, Inasmuch as you did it not, you're screwed. (page 185 of the 2004 Random House Trade Paperback Edition)Farmer goes against all conventional wisdom to achieve his goal. He loves each individual and remembers each as an individual, not as a class of people. He'll travel around the world to take care of someone who needs help. He doesn't take care of himself (and oft times, he doesn't take care of those near and dear to him), and he leaves no stone unturned. His quest to not miss a beat in living out his definition of himself is inspirational, but because this quest is within him, not something he decided for himself (my take on it), one can't replicate him or follow a set of basic rules to achieve what he has achieved - and Paul Farmer himself cannot wake up one morning and decide to change the way he lives life.
Why is he this way? The answers to this question alone could probably lead to a multi-session theological and psychological discussion and end up only chasing the wind.
How is Paul Farmer a modern day apostle? This morning, I was studying 2 Corinthians 1 and 2. The questions in this study (Life Application Bible Studies - NLT series) ponder the reasons the Apostle Paul wrote in such an intense letter to those in Corinth, why he needed to establish his integrity with them. Paul sputters and emotes with passion, and hopefully he convinced many (one must believe he did, or Christianity wouldn't be so prominent these days) that he was who he was, he truly believed in his mission and what he did, the way he lived was the only way he could live, he loved these people because he couldn't help himself, and there was no way he could be other than straight, plain, and obsessed with his mission. Such is the Paul Farmer portrayed in Kidder's book. Paul Farmer is driven by the injunction to love his neighbor as himself, to feed the hungry and cure the sick, to make the world a better place because he is here in it and he was given a gift of some truth that is vital to our well being. He has no choice. To do otherwise would be to die.
Is Paul Farmer perfect? No. But I don't think the Apostle Paul was perfect, either. He struggled daily.
There are so many things to learn from this book. Aside from the powerful example Farmer sets, I learned that Cuba has used its limited resources better than any other country in setting up good health and healing standards. After all these years of Castro-bashing, I was amazed. I learned that Russian prisons are breeding grounds for multiple-drug-resistant TB and Aids. I learned something of the workings and politics of the World Health Organization. I'm not expert on any of these or the many other things I learned; but I am more aware than I have ever been.
In my mental dialog as I was reading the book, I came to a conclusion that none of us can fight all the world's ills. They are too many and too wrapped up in the lives and interests of other people. To take on too much results in certain failure. But we can fight for one person, one cause, one battle at a time.
Thank you Tracy Kidder for writing so eloquently and in such a way that I can read some one's story with such clarity and ease. Thank you for the account of your own mental dialog as you worked out your friendship and respect for Paul Farmer. Thank you Paul Farmer for being who you are, for using your gifts to fight battles for those who can't. Thank you that there is no other way for you.
Read this book!
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