Jeanette Winterson is the kind of author that draws you into an impossible tale with such urgent integrity that you never once stop to question whether its possible or not. The telling MAKES it possible, and it is a true-in-your-heart story that you will never find any air in your lungs to question. In real life she is a small severe lesbian that doesn’t wait to make an impression. A friend at Random house described being ‘inventoried’ on the elevator by her imposing gaze and not realizing until she got off that she was barely 5 feet tall.
Trust me. I’m telling you stories.
Stories change the world. Stories change the teller. Stories that soften hearts. Stories save beavers. But you knew that, right?
Jane Goodall On the Power of “Reaching People’s Hearts” as Climate Activism
Jane Goodall is a legend in the science community thanks to decades of her groundbreaking work with chimpanzees. But in recent years, the famous primatologist has shifted her focus to environmental activism. And in her time advocating for the planet, she discovered a pretty powerful yet simple technique for reaching people’s hearts and making real progress.
As Goodall let slip later in the interview, she has found that the trick to helping people understand that we can all make a difference is pretty simple: telling stories.
“Being angry and pointing fingers, you won’t get anywhere. You just have to reach people’s hearts. And the best way I know is to tell stories,” Goodall said. “My job now is to try and help people understand every one of us makes a difference. And cumulatively, wise choices in how we act each day can begin to change the world.”
One of the things I learned most organically in this journey is not that beavers are good for the environment. Not that beavers help salmon or that their are ways to solve problems that arise when they move in. No. I once foolishly thought that science would be persuasive and that knowing the facts would make all the difference. It didn’t.
What made a difference was telling stories.
That wasn’t what I expected or what I really wanted. Touching hearts seemed somehow a mushy way to go about this important work. I wanted to persuade people with facts. I wanted people to see the historical inevitability of living with beavers. I wanted people to use the right names for things and understand what was at stake.
But it was the heart strings – not neurons – that saved beavers. I realized it that first random Earth day at John Muir.
It was our first exhibit so we weren’t even sure what to bring. We tossed in an old chew Moses had given us and some photos. And on a whim I stopped at the Wall green’s on the way in and bought a cheap set of felt pens and some paper. I thought maybe, if nothing else, we’d encourage some children to draw beavers. Make it a contest, put the winner on the website. We ended up with 100 and they were every single one priceless. There are two council members children in this photo. And there were more.
I had no idea the beaver illustrations would be so personal. So unique. So touching, One council member opposed to the beavers was going through a divorce and his ex came with the children that day. The children drew heart-felt beavers with “We love you” signs on it, Another council member came over afterwards and asked me not to post those pictures on the website or say whose they were “Because you know how things get complicated in families”.
Trust me. I’m telling you stories.
In the end that day laid the footprints for the path we would ultimately take. Touching hearts, winning votes for beavers, placing increasing pressure on the ‘respectable’ wing to do the right thing. We learned it all that day. Or the first lesson to it all.
Goodall then did what she does best: She told a short personal story to highlight that point. “I got lots of opposition from animal rights people for even talking to the people in the labs,” she said. “But if you don’t talk to people, how can you ever expect they’ll change?” A longtime opponent of experiments on animals, Goodall has become a leading activist in the anti-vivisection community.
There are certainly merits to challenging those with differing viewpoints — but for Jane Goodall, being patient, understanding, and attentive toward her opponents has brought her great success in making a difference in the world.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m nowhere near as patient as Dr. Goodall. And I think she completely underestimates (or pretends to underestimate) the enormous value of shame. But I agree with her about this. In the end its not about groundwater or science. It’s not about the role urban wildlife plays in creating social cohesion. It’s not about biodiversity or saving salmon or preventing fires.
It’s about telling stories.
Across the Northern hemisphere our pagan ancestors understood that the humble beaver is the key to the healthy functioning of land and water. The modern term “keystone species” may as well have been invented to describe the pivotal ecological role played by beavers. Native Americans revered the North American beaver (castor canadensis), referring to them as “little people” and holding in the highest esteem the great parallel beaver society that lived and worked alongside and in symbiosis with people.
Armed with a chainsaw, workers with the Sonoma Water Agency caused a stir among beaver fans last week when they used the equipment to cut a “bypass hole” in the beaver dam near a trail in Sonoma.
I can dimly remember a million years ago back when I first started watching our beavers seeing an otter sitting on the lodge and thinking, hey wait, that looks different, is that a beaver? Ahh memories. We all start somewhere. I’m sure there are actual beavers nearby. Who else would build a dam and upset SCWA?
