A hero

I did some work for Portland author Lisa Shannon last year–small organizational tasks as she put together a retreat for writers. So my attention was grabbed by the print and video story on her by New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof.

Lisa Shannon

The lives of Congolese women and their children continue to be ones of deep poverty, near-universal rape and other violence, and these documented horrors are ignored by most of us. Lisa, thank God, is constitutionally unable to look away and move on as others do in the face of injustice or tragedy.

Her book about her path to Congo, “A Thousand Sisters” comes out in April, and the few bits of it I read in draft were very good–honest and transporting. I’m watching Powell’s Bookstore’s shelves for it.

Kristof by necessity boils down the reasons Lisa has made this cause her life: An Oprah show on Congo caught her attention; she hosted a fund-raising run that became hugely successful; her dedication to Congo eventually crowded out other work and relationships.

There are , of course, many more complex things that move someone as talented as Lisa Shannon to take on this kind of work, rowing alone against a stiff tide every day to reach such a distant place. I’m grateful that she is so moved, so driven, so tireless.