Changes

The done thing is to read a book all the way through before you sit down to review it. I’m making an exception here, because I don’t want to lose any of the experience of reading this amazing book, I want to capture it as it hits me. And it is hitting me. This beautiful book has me in tears.

Dr Jane Goodall – I know she doesn’t use her title much, but I want to distinguish her from any other authors by the same name – we are talking about THE Jane Goodall – has been one of my heroes since I first picked up a copy of the revised edition of ‘’In "In The Shadow of Man’’ Man" some time in the 1980s. That was before I started dating when I first read books. Every time I read what she writes and listen to what she says, I do feel, have always felt that the work she does is critically important. I don’t actually agree with all of her interpretations, but I am always comforted by her.

Strange choice of words, ‘’comforted’’"comforted", given that I’ve just said this book has me weeping – but it is the accurate one. The premise of the book is a dialogue between Abrams and Goodall. He had written a similar book ‘’The "The Book of Joy’’ Joy" (which I haven’t read but must) with the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu and he saw ‘’The "The Book of Hope’’ Hope" as a companion piece. Actually ‘companion piece’ is my term, not his, and I don’t mean to downgrade this book by using it. Companions, by definition, are equals.

In this one, Jane Goodall, in her mid-eighties at the time of talking, shares stories, some of which will be familiar to anyone who has read her or listened to her over the years but lose nothing in the re-telling. Others are new to me. She shares both her definitions of ‘’Hope’’ "Hope" and her reasons for having it.

Importantly, she differentiates ‘’Hope’’ "Hope" from ‘’Faith’’"Faith"; she differentiates ‘’Hope’’ "Hope" from ‘’Wishful Thinking’’"Wishful Thinking". Faith, she says, is a belief in things that we can never know. Wishful Thinking is the sitting back in the hope (mis-used deployment of the word) that things will just turn out ok. Real Hope, according to Jane, is what makes us take the action necessary to achieve good things. Real Hope, according to Jane, grows out of us doing just that.