A very thoughtful friend asked me the other day why I was devoting so much time to connecting schools in the Pacific Northwest and Ghana. And it's also occurred to me that the work is often difficult. The electricity went out in Ghana for most of a month. People get sick. The mails are slow--in the U.S. and Ghana. Teachers are already and always too busy--in the U.S. and Ghana.
But I believe that getting a letter from a place where people live very differently--in part because it's a place where electricity is always available or often disappears for a few minutes or weeks--makes us wise. Most Americans live under the assumption and expectation that life is easy and comfortable. For most people, even in today's world, it's not. Learning about and becoming friends with people who assume that life is difficult is very unsettling and, I think, very necessary. It helps us to get ready for the inevitable challenges and losses that even the most prosperous of us will face. And it raises a very frightening and exhilarating question: what are we to do with our embarrassment of riches, with our anomalous access to money, knowledge, and influence?
Also, getting a letter from a friend from far away is just plain fun. There's also that.
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