i am sassa

After hours of an absolutely jaw-dropping political three-ring circus last night, I just had to paint the sweetest woman in the world holding a baby chimp. There was no other way to rid my brain of those toxins. If you’re feeling particularly foggy or down from the…from the EVERYTHING, you know? Take your pick…I highly recommend getting a warm cup of coffee or hot chocolate, and snuggling up to a stuffed cow or dog or monkey, and watching one of the absolutely heart warming interviews linked below (Jane Goodall takes stuffed animals to her interviews and I’m still crying about it).

Jane Goodall is eighty-six years old, and is still working. What. A. Badass.

There is no shortage of fascinating information available about her decision sixty years ago to work with chimpanzees in Tanzania, and the amazing discoveries that followed. That decision was at first ridiculed by those close to her, who told her to stay home and do things girls ought to do. It was ridiculed by some in the science community due to her lack of college education. Even when she decided to earn a PhD to help her secure future grants, it was ridiculed by her teachers. She had done everything wrong so far, they told her. Naming the chimpanzees? Wrong. They should be numbered. That’s what a scientist does. Empathizing with them, attributing her own emotional understanding to their actions? Wrong. A scientist is always objective. Claiming she saw them using tools to retrieve food? Has to be wrong. Only humans are smart enough to use tools. She continued doing things the way she knew in her heart was right regardless, and no one ridicules her anymore. Her contribution to the field of primatology is immeasurable.

What I most love about Jane is not the years she lived and worked among the chimpanzees, though. I cannot get over that she is eighty six and still traveling the globe to educate people on environmental issues. The first video linked below (the interview with Trevor Noah) was posted less than a day ago. Here is an article in the New York Times about what she’s doing and her thoughts on the Coronavirus pandemic. She goes to schools to educate children. She started a non-profit called Roots and Shoots that educates and empowers young’uns to do their part to change the world. She donates her time to the Jane Goodall Institute and travels on average 300 FREAKING DAYS A YEAR to help educate people.

Listening to her is an absolute joy. I don’t think theres anyone else on this earth who could instill such a sense of calm and kindness while saying in no uncertain terms that our window of opportunity to change the damage we have done to this planet is rapidly closing.

Thank you, Jane Goodall, for all you have given and continue to give us.