Setting Wounda Free

Wounda's Journey from the Jane Goodall Institute on Vimeo.

This is so touching - Jane Goodall took part in setting this chimp, Wounda - who had come close to dying in captivity - free on an island paradise, where other chimps are already living. Jane says for her 80th birthday next year, the best gift she could receive is if funds are raised to free the 60 other chimps waiting to be set free as well. When Wounda hugs Jane, to thank her for her freedom, I wept. Tissue alert! So moving.

This would be a good cause to contribute to, if anyone has some extra dollars to spare - contact the Jane Goodall Institute or www.janegoodall.org . 

Reason for Hope~Jane Goodall

Kids, I have just finished this book, which was such a satisfying read, I am sorry it ended. Of course, I loved Jane's story of being a child in love with nature. Below she is shown with Jubilee, the stuffed chimpanzee whom she fell in love with on sight at eighteen months -- a sort of prophecy of the life that would follow:)

And of course I loved her stories about living in Africa with the chimpanzees, and all she learned about them. Her sadness at the death of her husband, from cancer, when they had only had a few years together.

But it is her spirituality, and her hope, woven all the way through this book, that really spoke to me. And her belief that, if each person makes changes, and we all try together, we can have an impact on the world, hopefully in time.

Jane travels 300 days a year, carrying her message of hope, trying to inspire kids, especially, to care about the earth and believe they can make a difference. I so admire the dedication she has shown, spending her entire life in the cause of compassionate treatment of animals, respect for the rights of other species, conservation and education.

Jane writes about visiting the chimp JoJo, held captive in a small cage with bars all around, alone, with only a rubber tire to sit on, nothing to play with or stimulate him. Imprisoned there for ten years, used for "medical research" in a laboratory in New York.

"I looked into his eyes. There was no hatred there, only a sort of gratitude because I had stopped to talk to him......JoJo's mother had been shot in Africa. Did he remember that life? I wondered. Did he sometimes dream of the great trees with the breeze rustling through the canopy, the birds singing, the comfort of his mother's arms?.........Not for him the freedom to choose each day....there was no comfort for him of soft forest floor or leafy nest, high in the treetops.....JoJo had lost his world long ago. Now he was in a world of our choosing, a world that was hard and cold and bleak......The shame I felt was because I was human.........."

Through Jane's work, some significant improvements have been made in facilities for animals used for medical purposes. JoJo, thankfully, was retired to a sanctuary in California, along with some of the other chimpanzees from that lab.

"We still have a long way to go," says Jane. "But we are moving in the right direction. If only we can overcome cruelty, to human and animal, with love and compassion, we shall stand at the threshold of a new era in human moral and spiritual evolution--and realize, at last our most unique quality: humanity."

Later in the book, addressing the planet's greatest problems, Jane expounds : "....this scenario is repeated again and again....: increased population growth, diminishing resources, and the destruction of nature, resulting in poverty and human suffering.

"Yes, we are destroying our planet. The forests are going, the soil is eroding, the water tables are drying, the deserts are increasing. There is famine, disease, poverty and ignorance. There is human cruelty, greed, jealousy, vindictiveness and corruption....there is crime,  drugs, gang violence; thousands who are homeless......street children....ethnic conflicts, massacres, and broken peace treaties....There is organized crime, sale of arms.......international terrorism.....fanatical hate....billions of tons of synthetic chemicals.... have been heedlessly released into the environment.......

"All this would seem to suggest a hopeless millenium ahead......Yet despite this, I do have hope for the future--for our future.  But only if changes are made in the way we live -- and made quickly. And these changes must be made by us, you and me. If we go on leaving it to others, shipwreck is inevitable.

"My reasons for hope are fourfold: the human brain; the resilience of nature; the energy and enthusiasm that is people worldwide; and the indomitable human spirit........Imagine: as more and more people around the world become aware of what is good and what is bad for the environment, and for society, this means there are thousands,  then millions, then billions all thinking the same: 'It cant make any difference what I do--it's just me.' Think how it would be if we could turn that around -- thousands and millions and billions of people all knowing that what they do does make a difference.....If everyone demanded eggs from free ranging chickens, how quickly poultry farming would change! ...if the demand [for meat] were less, animals could be humanely farmed."

Jane writes about the people she meets as she goes around the world: the little girl who had saved up her pennies to give to Jane "to buy bananas for the orphaned chimpanzees"; the young man who went out on a fishing boat and was horrified at the dolphins who became trapped in  the nets, who leaped into the ocean to rescue a baby dolphin and its mother who had looked pleadingly at him for help (he got fired, but now creates Endangered Species chocolate bars, donating 11.7 percent of the profit towards dolphin survival); an American zoo visitor who leaped into a moat around a male chimpanzee's enclosure to rescue him from drowning. "I looked into his eyes...And the message was: Wont anybody help me?"

Jane writes: "I truly believe that more and more people are seeing the appeal in the eyes around them, feeling it in their hearts, and throwing themselves into the battle. Herein lies the real hope for our future; we are moving toward the ultimate destiny of our species -- a state of compassion and love.

"Yes, I do have hope.  I believe we can look forward to a world in which our  great-grandchildren and their children after them can live in peace. A world in which there will still be trees and chimpanzees swinging through them, and blue sky and birds singing, and the drumbeats of indigenous peoples reminding us powerfully of our link to Mother Earth and the Great Spirit.......But...we dont have much time. The planet's resources are running out. And so if we truly care about the future of our planet, we must stop leaving it up to "them" out there to solve the problems. It is up to us to save the world for tomorrow: it's up to you and me."

Okay, Jane, if you have hope, I do, too.

Hope for the Animals

[Cant you just tell when a girl knows she's pretty:)?]

I have been feeling just a tad depleted of late and, in those times, I tend to draw inward and rest and try to replenish the old spirit a bit. I have been having a rich time of it today. I've been  watching k.d.lang Live in London, with her band and the BBC Orchestra behind her, as she absolutely nails one number after another.

She did a killer job of Jane Siberry's The Valley, Jane being one of Canada's under-appreciated artists, as k.d.lang explained. Then she followed it with  Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Wowzers!

Faiza called, full of "Habibi"'s and "Sweetheart"'s, to tell me that, though she remains very tired from weeks of not sleeping, in order to care for Bill through all of his night-time wakings, he has begun to move around just a little, from his chair to his commode, without assistance. This is very good news. Faiza thinks that maybe by next week, he will be able to manage in the bedroom and she can return to sleeping in a bed at night.

"I thank God for everything. Remember, He knows everything we need and if we ask, and we have good hearts and try our best, He will give it."

It is snowing here tonight, so we arranged for me to come over the first day the roads are clear. I told her I was very happy to hear the news about Bill.

I am reading, right now, Jane Goodall's Reason For Hope: A Spiritual Journey. Of course I am loving the story of her love affair with the natural world and animals and insects, which began when she was a small child. And her time in Africa, place of my dreams.

I feel a small tie to her, in a convoluted way.  When I was a single mom, living in Kelowna and longing for the ocean and the west coast of Vancouver Island, I read a newspaper article about a single mom named Alexandra Morton, who was living her dream, living with and studying the whales in the Broughton Archipelago, off north-eastern Vancouver Island.

At the time, I cut the article out, and told myself, "If she can do it, I can do it too." A few years later, I made the move to Tofino. One night I was sitting waiting for some friends alongside their huge old Norwegian clipper ship, the Duen, down at the 4th Street dock at sunset.

A tall woman with long hair came up to me and said "Hi, I'm Alexandra Morton." My response was "Wow!" and after we exchanged some info about where my friends were, that she was supposed to hook up with, I told her about how she had long been my hero, that I so admired the work she was doing with the whales.

Our friends came, along with the film crew from National Geographic, who were to go out with my friends the following day on the Duen to film  some action footage of whales. We all wandered over to the Weigh West pub, where I turned out to be the local color at the table. I was making everyone laugh, telling them about the five-foot-tall old salt who hung out in town in his captain's hat, with his long frizzy hair, whose laugh was so loud and could be heard over such vast distances, that apparently someone had filed a nuisance report on him and he had been ordered, in court, not to laugh out loud in the village  after 11 p.m. (True story!)

In a quieter moment, I told Alexandra how, years before, I had seen the article about her and told myself that if she could do it, and live her dream, I could too, and that she had been my inspiration for coming to Tofino.

She looked at me, and smiled, and told me, "Well, when I was younger, my inspiration was Jane Goodall, and I told myself that if Jane could make a living out of being with the animals she loves, I could do it too. And I have just come from being with Jane Goodall, and telling her how she was my inspiration. So here we are, and it has come full circle."

Cool, hey? I love it when life does stuff like that!

Anyway Alexandra has devoted years up-Island trying to save the wild salmon from the illnesses caused by fish farms the Department of Fisheries allowed to set up right in the migratory path of the young fry. The young fish have to pass through the effluent from the fish farm; they get coated in lice, and are too young to withstand it. The effect on the fishing industry is obvious, but it also impacts the killer whales, who depend on salmon for food.

Alexandra has worked tirelessly to alert and  inform the  Department of Fisheries, but changes are slow in coming and time is running out for the salmon. At this moment, she is  contemplating a change. She has been approached about running for public office, and is trying to decide whether she will be of more value continuing her work for the salmon, or trying to effect some change from within the system. Whatever she does, this woman has my vote and my trust, for certain. She has devoted thirty-plus years to her study of the whales, the survival of wild salmon and the well-being of the Broughton Archipelago.

There is a quote from Reason For Hope which resonated with me. If Jane still has hope, then I must, too. She tells of a story she was told as a little girl, about the birds having a competition to see who could fly the highest. The eagle was sure he would win, flying higher and higher, passing all the other birds, until even he could fly no higher. And at that very moment, a little jenny wren, who had hidden herself in the feathers on his back, flew up, and won the competition. Jane said that she, too, has ridden on the back of an eagle, whose every feather is a person who has helped or supported her in her work. She thanks all of these people. Then she says:

"So many feathers on the eagle. For my eagle, of course, is the symbol of the great spiritual power that I believe carries us all. That supports us when our commitment and determination are put to the test. From which, if we will, we can gain strength and new energy even when we are at our most exhausted. If we have faith, and if we ask."

Aha! That is the step I have missed, in this time of fatigue, depletion and discouragement. To remember that faith, and to ask.