Inspired by
Jane Goodall

I was invited by a good friend to join in a special VIP event to meet Dr. Jane Goodall up at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, RI on Saturday. Wow! How could one not be seriously in awe of Jane Goodall? She really is in a league with people like Roger Tory Peterson, Steven J. Gould, and Steven Hawking. Being in her presence was all a bit surreal. She spoke for a little over a half hour about her Roots and Shoots program, a great way to get young people involved in conservation, and then made herself available to sign books. As VIPs we were right at the front of the line and I mustered the nerve to have a brief conversation with her. I said, "I was once watching a group of crows chase a Great Horned Owl. They all landed in a spruce tree and the crows began breaking off sprigs of the spruce and dropping them on the owl." Jane responded, "Aren't they so smart!" I then pointed out, "They are not only tool makers but also bomb makers." She said, "That really is something." And as I walked away she commented, "They were missile makers." "Yes," I said. "Missile makers." Jane Goodall is by far at the top of my list of celebrities with which I have interacted (which includes Roger Tory Peterson, E.O. Wilson, Phil Donahue, Marlo Thomas, Katherine Hepburn, Dr. Andrew Weil, and Ann Coulter). I am still living in the glow!