High school memories are not always the best. In my “less-than-best” category are English class reading assignments: read some literary classic and be prepared to discuss it in class or, worse yet, write a paper on it. Many of the assigned books failed to interest me, so I often relied on another literary classic – Cliff’s Notes. However, one book ignited my imagination – James Hilton’s Lost Horizons, with its fictional lamasery Shangri-la secreted high in the mountains of Tibet. Hilton introduced me to the idea of a utopia, the dream of a perfect life in a perfect place. Haven’t we all yearned for such an idyllic existence, a perfect life with no sickness or sadness or loss, in a place where hatred and violence don’t exist?