On Imagining
I watched Jane Goodall’s final words on Netflix last month,[i] and although we disagreed on several things, like her belief in reincarnation and hope for an afterlife, we both believe that hope is the antidote for apathy. “I want you to understand that we are part of the natural world. And even today, when the planet is dark, there still is hope. Don’t lose hope. If you lose hope, you become apathetic and do nothing,” she said.
I dream of a world where we live without harming each other or animals. One of the songs I listen to when I feel my hope slip is John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Imagine.”[ii] They imagine a world without heaven, because—in my opinion—heaven gives those who believe in it an excuse to forget about what they and others are doing to the world we live in today. We need to live for today and not ignore what we’re doing to the planet and its inhabitants. There is no escape to heaven (or space).
They imagine a world without countries because we’re constantly divided by borders and “other” those across them. We treat them as less than ourselves and forget that what happens there affects us, too. We’re all people, trying to live our lives in peace. Yet the elected leaders and dictators alike convince the people that war between neighbours is the answer to all of their problems.
Our planet is one connected ecosystem that doesn’t stop at an international border. We all suffer when we deforest the planet, pollute the ground, air, and water, and kill thousands of species each year. National divisions prevent us from acting in our collective best interest, as we mistakenly believe we’re at a disadvantage if we protect the environment while others don’t.
They imagine a world without religions, because most create the same problems that nations do, and often have heaven and hell wrapped up in them as well. Some believe animals were put here for us to use and abuse. Some believe that members of other religions don’t deserve to exist. Some believe that non-believers and queer people don’t deserve to exist. And women? There aren’t many that treat women equally or with respect.
They imagine a world without possessions because greed and hunger drive us to fight and take from others. Jane Goodall had something to say about that, too. She witnessed brutal behaviour between chimpanzees, our closest genetic cousins, and concluded that we were born violent as well. I choose to believe instead, like Lennon and Ono, that greed, hunger, and violence can be overcome if everyone has what they need and learn from an early age that there are alternatives to violence and anger. I read an interesting piece recently on Inuit culture and teaching children how to avoid anger.[iii] The first step is to never lower yourself to the level of a child when they’re yelling or violent. When they’ve calmed down, tell them a story and ask them questions to teach them that anger and violence don’t solve problems. If we build a culture of non-violence and respect from an early age, we will better our society and planet.
Jane Goodall, like many of us, was raised in a violent culture and time, and it’s easy to see how she might believe that violence is an inevitable part of our genetic heritage. We’ve since come to realize that nurture plays a much larger role than nature in so many of our behaviours and that parenting skills do matter. The chimps she studied were raised in a culture every bit as violent as human society outside of Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania.
If we can learn to overcome our basest instincts, we can, as John Lennon and Yoko Ono imagined, share the world instead of coveting, dividing, and exploiting it. Is this all dreaming? Can we get billions of parents to teach kindness and empathy instead of anger? Maybe one day we can live in the world we now only imagine.
What did you think? How are you doing? I’d love to chat…
[i] https://www.netflix.com/title/82053197.
You can read the text of her last words here: https://janegoodall.ca/our-stories/dr-jane-goodall-leaves-behind-her-last-words/
[iii] https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/03/13/685533353/a-playful-way-to-teach-kids-to-control-their-anger