The Cathedral Within

Bill Shore has written a wise and inspiring book that shows us how to make the most of life and do something that counts.

Like the cathedral builders of an earlier time, the visionaries described in this memoir share a single desire: to create something that endures. The great cathedrals did not soar skyward because their builders discovered new materials or financial resources; rather, the builders had a unique understanding of the human spirit that enabled them to use those materials in a new way. So, too, have the extraordinary people Bill Shore has met in his travels as one of the nation's leading social entrepreneurs, a new movement of citizens who are tapping the vast resources of the private sector to improve public life. Among them are:

-Gary Mulhair, who has created unprecedented jobs and wealth at the largest self-supporting human-service organization of its kind, Pioneer Human Services of Seattle
-Denver chef Noel Cunningham, who has committed his life to ending hunger and has galvanized a community to take action
-Nancy Carstedt of the Chicago Children's Choir, which provides thousands of children with an introduction to music
-Alan Khazei of City Year, which has become the model for President Clinton's vision of national service
-Geoffrey Canada, who has created a safe haven for more than four thousand inner-city children in New York City, from Harlem to Hell's Kitchen

These leaders, and many others described in these pages, have built important new cathedrals within their communities, and by doing so they have transformed lives, including their own.

Bill Shore is the founder and executive director of Share Our Strength (SOS), a Washington D.C.-based antihunger nonprofit organization. He is the author of Revolution of the Heart and writes frequently on public-policy issues for newspapers across the country. He can be reached via e-mail at bshore@strength.org.