Happy Birthday, Dr. Jane!

Well, it's a little early, but I thought I'd throw this out for those of you who'd also like to send an email birthday message to Dr. Jane Goodall. She came to San Francisco to speak at the Herbst Theatre last November, and having the chance to see her in person, and even give her a little hug, after admiring her from afar for many years was really memorable.

Here's the link if you'd like to add your birthday wishes to Dr. Jane by April 3.

You'll Never Guess Who I Saw Friday Night

10:30PM. I'm on the N-Judah train coming home from downtown. Sarah Palin herself is about five feet away from me, wearing her red skirt suit, black pumps and trademark sexy librarian glasses. In her folksy manner, she's identifying the mavericks on the train, and the passengers are loving it. They're asking her about where the real Americans live (her answer: Alaska) and what she likes to read (her answer: everything). She's also talking about the Communists in America.

And you'll never guess who was sitting next to her! You guessed it: Joe the Plumber. But he had grown a head of dark, thick hair so I didn't recognize him until he pulled a wrench out of his pocket. (I thought he was Todd.)

Yes, Halloween night on the N-Judah. I also saw Amy Winehouse, Gwen Stefani, a cute girl bee with a skateboard and a pregnant nun, just to name a few more revelers.

However, I did not have my hands free to take photos of them for you and for that, I apologize because everyone looked festive and wild and was having a rollicking good time.

***

Returning home, my hands were full of books and information from the second installment of my Mental Stimulus Package (man, I forgot to tell you about the first part with Ben Frankin and the glass armonica. Next time.).

I went to The Leakey Prize Laureate Lectures, honoring Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. Toshisada Nishida, at the Herbst Theatre. From the program description: The Leakey Prize was established in 1990 to reward intellectual achievement and express appreciation for research performed with courage and perseverance in the fields of ape and human evolution. Both Dr. Goodall and Dr. Toshisada Nishida will discuss the highlights of their pioneering careers. Through their diligent work, these scientists have shaped the field of primatology and uncovered pivotal findings that help us better understand one of our closes living relatives, the chimpanzee.

I don't even know where to start in describing the feeling of seeing Dr. Goodall on stage, speaking in her trademark calm, collected yet passionate story of her early years, her tutelage under Dr. Louis Leakey and the incredible faith he placed in her, and her deep desire to help reverse years of environmental damage and endangerment of many animal species, not just her beloved chimpanzees of Gombe.

If you're like me, you grew up reading Jane Goodall's books, watching her on National Geographic television specials. I also was secretly envious of her son, Grub, who got to spend his childhood living amongst the tribe of chimpanzees that Goodall studied for almost 30 years.


“The most important thing is to actually think about what you do. To become aware and actually think about the effect of what you do on the environment and on society. That's key, and that underlies everything else.” ~ Dr. Jane Goodall

I saw Dr. Goodall speak once before, when I was in college and she visited my university. Then the talk was about the chimps, and her work with them. The talk this year was different. Dr. Goodall travels about 300 days of the year, all over the world. She talks about preserving animal habitats and shared stories of the villages that her foundation has helped, encouraging safe farming habits, microloans to women, keeping girls in school and reforestation techiques, all of which have greatly improved the lives of villagers that had been deforesting areas of Tanzania and endangering the habitats of chimpanzees and many other animals. Her talk focused on how improving and educating the people has only served to enhance and improve the lives of the animals she struggles to save. Through the Jane Goodall Institute and her outreach program for children called Roots and Shoots, she has been doing extraordinary work outside the forests of Tanzania.

I could not help relating her talk to the tempestuous presidential campaign and the incredible need for effective and immediate science and math education for our kids to maintain our standing in the world as a leading nation (I won't even begin to address that Sarah Palin fruit fly debacle) not to mention the important contributions that studying chimpanzees, our closest living relatives on the evolutionary ladder, holds for the understanding of our own species.

It became vitally clear to me that not only are we poised to destroy an amazing link in evolutionary biolology (over 1,000,000 chimpanzees in 1960s down to about 200-300,000 today) but we are losing such a stronghold by not teaching our children how important science is in the real world to protecting the only planet we have. Our presidential election only emphasizes the polarity in our approaches to these crucial subjects.

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From a recent speech: “What gives me hope,” Dr. Goodall says, “is the amazing capacity of the human brain to come up with innovative solutions, the indomitable human spirit that fights back, and the resilience of nature.”

“It’s time to recreate the age of wisdom when elders would gather and ponder how any decision they would make would affect our future seven generations down the line,” says Goodall. Quoting the words of an Eskimo leader, she concluded: “Up in the north, the ice is melting. What will it take to melt the ice in the human heart?”

***

After the talk, I stood in line for almost as long as the talk, to have a chance to finally meet Dr. Goodall. While in line, we all shared stories of growing up with Jane, what a powerful impression she had made on us, and what a singular experience it was to hear her speak. I signed up to become a member of both of her organizations.

While we waited in line, servers carrying trays of cookies and Halloween candy and apple cider kept us full of sugary treats. And then finally it was my turn to stand next to a childhood idol, have her sign my books and try not to be overwhelmed and cry.

She first signed a chimpanzee mask for Little Curly Girl, my niece. I told her the LCG was recently just two years old, so she signed it "with love" because in her words, "Being two years old means she should get lots of extra love." (Almost cried but didn't.)

Then she signed my books. I told her what an honor it was to be in her presence and then we had our photo taken together (which I'll post when I find it on her website). And then I walked to the train station in a bit of a wistful mood.

As I waited for the train, I looked at what Dr. Goodall had written in my book.

For Julie
Follow your heart.
Jane Goodall

And surrounded by crazily dressed adult trick-or-treaters, I did cry a little bit. Happy/sad crying.

***

"Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don't believe is right." ~ Jane Goodall

Like Jane, I keep our fingers crossed for us primates. All of us primates. I think we can still pull it off and I think President Obama can help us get started.

If We Could Talk to the Animals

"When the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again..." ~ William Beebe

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I have always remembered this quote. It made quite an impression on me, ever since I was a little kid. You can see it engraved on a stone monument at the San Francisco Zoo, on the way to the gorilla habitat.

For some reason, it seems that the years of my childhood (and maybe yours, too) were filled with a lot of awareness about our closest relatives, the chimpanzees and gorillas. I remember watching Jane Goodall quite often on television and years later I had a chance to see Goodall speak at San Jose State. It was a wonderful experience just being in her presence and hearing her stories about the chimpanzees she studied that we all seemed to know so well.

I also remember reading and learning about Dian Fossey and her work with gorillas, especially her beloved Digit. Fossey's brutal murder by the people who were poaching her adopted family of mountain gorillas is something I haven't forgotten either.

But maybe the most influential and exciting person to me was Koko, the gorilla who could talk in American Sign Language, and who had a kitten named All Ball. I think lots of kids have a dream of talking to animals and wishing they could be the next Dr. Dolittle.

So here is an update for those of you with the same fond memories: Koko is alive and well and talking in her private home in Woodside, about 45 minutes south of San Francisco. The Boy was recently contacted to do some work with Koko's organization, The Gorilla Foundation, and it rekindled my memories of Koko and her story.

The Boy did not get to meet Koko or Dr. Patterson on this visit, but he did come home with some amazing videos of Koko and her life as a talking gorilla. There was one excerpt that was especially moving, of her friend Michael, another gorilla who learned ASL. I cannot embed this video, but I hope you will watch it. If you ever wondered if animals have feelings and memories, this should clear things up for you.

The saddest thing about reaquainting myself with Koko is learning that it is entirely possible that gorillas may be completely extinct in about 10 years. In our lifetimes. Please pass along the word, so that the quote at the beginning of my post doesn't come true for Koko and her kind. For our closest relations in the animal world.

PS. I think Koko's Foundation is looking for a director of fundraising. If you know of any experienced non-profit professionals who are skilled at fundraising and PR, let me know and I'll see if we can make a connection.

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One last video. For all of you artists, human and otherwise...