Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey

Goodall muses further on the possibilities of moving “from evil to love” (253). Returning to her childhood, she admits that she was raised to hate Germans because of WWII and the Holocaust. Then, 30 years later, she visited Auschwitz with a friend named Dietmar for the first time. She describes her experience at the concentration camp. Initially she was numbed by shock, but when she saw a child’s shoe she was overcome by emotion. Then, she noticed a small plant growing out of a crack in one of the remaining bunkers. She couldn’t help but see it as a symbol of hope.

Three years after her visit to Auschwitz, Goodall met Henri Landwirth, a Holocaust survivor. He chronicled his experiences in his autobiography Gift of Life. Later, he invested in a new project called Give Kids the World, where children with terminal illnesses could visit Disney World before their deaths. Goodall remarks on Landwirth’s ability to create love out of suffering. Meeting Landwirth and visiting Auschwitz have changed her point of view.

Goodall considers how to end her story. She is writing at the Birches. Studying the view out her window, she reflects on her childhood, her love for the outdoors, her work in Africa, and her spiritual evolution. In retrospect, she understands how all these experiences fit together to make her life. She reflects, too, on all of the lecturing, touring, and traveling she’s done. These experiences have taught her valuable lessons about herself and her version of God, too. Reminiscing on her life, she shares a poem she wrote called “Five Herons.”

Goodall returns to some of the questions she has been asked over the years. She remarks on her capacity for calm, peacefulness, and compassion, which many have marveled at. Goodall isn’t sure what her future holds, but she is thankful for all of the inspirational people she has met throughout her life. She is also grateful for all of the young people she has met who are devoted to creating change. 

She reiterates the importance of devoting oneself to others, offering anecdotal examples from her son’s and her own experience. She returns to one final story from her childhood, when she was terrified a dragonfly might sting her. She wonders at the meaning of the memory and decides her account should end at its start.

Six years after her book’s original publication, Goodall pens a reflection on Reason for Hope in light of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She recounts the events surrounding and following the attacks. She happened to be in New York City on 9/11, a coincidence she was initially desperate to understand. She ultimately used her platform with Roots & Shoots to respond to the attacks, working to educate people on Islam to destigmatize Arabs and Muslim culture, as bigotry had emerged as a backlash to the attacks. She gave several talks on peace and hope in the wake of the attacks, too. Initially she wasn’t sure how to broach these topics, but ultimately reiterated her four main reasons for hope, which she’d outlined in the original Reason for Hope book. These ideas still seemed to hold true to her.

However, Goodall was devastated in March 2003 when she learned that the United Kingdom and the United States had begun to bomb Iraq. Although unable to reconcile with this news, she continued striving for peace. She recalls her time by the Platte River where she attended a Dance of Peace. While here, she witnessed a flock of remarkable cranes, symbols of peace in many cultures. She again asserts that fighting for nature will help humans fight against violence. She believes that peace is possible if more people fight against war and for love.