Jane Goodall & a Higher Power

 I listened to an interview with Jane Goodall on CBC Radio's The Current earlier this week and I'm grateful I caught it. 

In her early twenties Goodall headed to Africa to visit a friend and with the goal of working with animals. She was young, by her own admission somewhat naive, and untrained in this sort of work. Fortunately she was mentored by Dr. Louis Leakey who arranged for her to do research with chimpanzees in what is now the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. That research changed the way we regard primates despite the resistance of established scientists, all male, or course.

Today Goodall is 89 years old and is a global conservation ambassador who speaks 300 times a year bringing a message of hope despite the bleak realities of climate change, habitat loss, and the decline in biodiversity. 

The interview by host Matt Galloway was all worthwhile but became intriguing near the end when Jane spoke of her sense that her life's work became a calling (my term, not hers) which sustains her even in old age when her relentless schedule can be exhausting. She identified stories of hope, including the re-greening of the sulphur-scorched Sudbury region in Ontario, where we lived from 1988 to 1999 while that rehabilitation was taking place.

She also spoke of a sense of higher power (again, my term) at the conclusion of the interview. I found this quite moving. I found the transcript which includes these thoughts, but they were left out of the news piece about the interview. Why, I wonder. Are we that leery of people speaking about God, in whatever form, that those musings must be expunged from the reporting? She wasn't being a religious zealot. For many of us it is our belief in a Creator which sustains us and motivates us in working for a better world. 

Here are Goodall's closing exchanges with Matt Galloway, for the record. Thank God for Jane Goodall.

JANE GOODALL: Well, first of all, I'm I'm driven because I care passionately about the environment, the forest, the animals. I care passionately about children. You know, I've got three grandchildren. Grown? No, but presumably two of them anyway, will probably have children. And what a world to be born into. And then, I don't know, it feels as though I'm given this strength, but I can't answer that question because I don't know. I just have to feel it comes from somewhere, whatever is out there. And it's interesting, isn't it, that so many scientists are now saying there is intelligence behind the creation of the universe? My mother said to me when I was growing up, Well, you were born into a Christian family, so you would worship God. You might have been born in Egypt, you'd be a muslim, you'd worship Allah and so on. She can only be one God by whatever name you call him, her name it, whatever. And so this intelligence behind the universe is just another word for that, that whatever it is, you know, I mean, what is it? None of us know. And some people just deny it. I can't. I just because it feels so strong for me.

MG: Then that gives you the drive to do the work you do.

JANE GOODALL: And it gives me the strength. You know, sometimes before a lecture, I'm so tired and, you know, and to the night before, my voice is failing. And I think, well, for pity's sake, help me. And it comes. It's strange, but three times and I've really got scared by this. On one of these occasions when I'm really tired, I've actually looked at myself giving a talk and it's scary. I think I've got to get back into my self to know what I'm saying.