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Biographies & Memoirs
In this second book in the series of Memoirs of a Thoughtful Traveler the reader is asked to consider these questions: What does it mean tobring progress--schools, electricity, roads,running water--to paradise?Will introducing the benefits of modern progressive cultures reallyimprove life within a community that has survived contentedly forcenturies? Does it matter whether the desire to "do good" is amotivation of the ones helping to bring progress?
In October2008, climbing expedition leader and attorney, Jeff Rasley, led a trekto a village named Basa on a Himalayan mountainside in the remote Soluregion of Nepal. His group of three adventurers was only the third group of "white people" ever seen in this village of subsistence farmers.What they found was a people thoroughly unaffected by Westernconsumer-culture values. They had no running water, electricity, oranything that moves on wheels. Each family lived in abeautiful,hand-chiseled stone house with a flower garden. Beyond whatthey already had, it seemed all the villagers wanted was education forthe children. Rasley and his friends helped finish a school buildingalready in progress. But then, the villagers asked for help to bringelectricity to Basa.
Bringing Progress to Paradise describes Rasley's transformation from adventurer to committed philanthropist."We are attracted to the simpler way of life in these communities, and weare changed by our experience of it. They are attracted to us,because we bring material benefits." Bringing Progress to Paradise offersRasley's critical reflection on the tangled relationships amongtourists, "do-gooder" missionaries, and native people in "exotic"locales. He provides a surprising analysis of the effect of Westernvalues on some of the most remote locations on earth.
Other books by Jeff Rasley -
If you are interested in learning the rest of the story of Basa Village, read Light in the Mountains - Namaste, Rakshi, and Electricity in a Himalayan Village and its prequel India - Nepal Himalayas In the Moment (an honest Three Cups of Tea).
Want to get out of the snow and mountains and onto sandy beaches and swaying palms, check out the lyrical Islands in my Dreams
For a change of pace curl up with False Prophet. It's a romantic mystery and inspirational tale based on a legal case Rasley handled in his 30-year Indianapolis law practice.
If you enjoy sports action, history, humor, romance, or thesex/drugs/rock 'n roll cultural revolution of the 60s, check out MONSTERS OF THE MIDWAY: Love and Redemption in College Football.
Pilgrimage: Sturgis to Wounded Knee and Back Home, a Memoir - It begins with a motorcycle road trip to the Bacchanalia of Sturgis Bike Week, then takes a detour to the massacre at Wounded Knee, and crosses the ocean to a remote village in the Himalayas. But, reconciliation is found back home in Indiana.
GODLESS - Living a Valuable Life beyond Beliefs makes the case that beliefs divide us, but values unite us. So weshould fight religious and political violence with positive values.
Hero's Journey - John Ritter, the Chip Hilton of Goshen, Indiana; a Memoir is a meditation on what makes a real hero and a nostalgic reminiscence about childhood heroes.