Last week I had the privilege of getting to listen to Jane Goodall speak to a small audience in Kathmandu about her life, her work, her fears, her hopes and her indefatigable efforts to conserve this extraordinary planet we find ourselves on.
At almost 91, she stood for twenty minutes in the 45-degree Fahrenheit chill of the evening and, without missing a single syllable, recounted many stories of her life, all with the erudition of a Brit and the good humor of someone grown wise from worldliness, age and compassion. Most impressive to me was her class-consciousness mixed with love; where she could have spoken about deforestation in Tanzania being the result of greedy and ignorant farmers, she instead said simply "They're poor and do not know how to rotate their crops in a way that allows them to use the same fields each year, so of course they expand into the forest and cut it down." She said she travels 360 days a year promoting environmental conservation and raising funds for local organizations that do this, be it for particular species or ecosystems writ large.
Jane Goodall, I found, is extremely inspiring. Extremely grounded. Extremely humorous, articulate and wise. Extremely dedicated to the welfare of others and not content with anything short of the best effort she can possibly make. All these qualities are pure gold in the eyes of admissions officers, but they also make for a life very well lived.
Below is a video I took (excuse the quality!) from the event. Enjoy.
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