books, literature, arts – Page 17 – watercress words by Dr Aletha

Dr Jane Goodall-Messenger of Hope-and Medal of Freedom Award

Dr. Jane Goodall received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Biden , recognizing her environmental activism. The Barbie Inspiring Women Series also features a collectible doll representing her legacy. Goodall advocates for mindful eating and local food production while promoting hope amid global challenges in her recent book, “The Book of Hope.”

updated January 6, 2025 and October 2, 2025

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the United States’ highest civilian honour, presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavours.

Dr Jane Goodall, DBE, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden on January 4, 2025. The award recognized Dr. Jane’s activism, vision, and message of hope, which have mobilized a global movement to protect the planet.

“I am deeply honoured to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” said Dr. Jane Goodall. “This recognition reflects the hope and action of so many people who inspire and motivate me every day in the firm belief that together we can and we must save the natural world for ourselves and future generations.”

Dr. Jane Goodall, an Inspiring Woman

The Barbie Inspiring Women Series honors ethologist and activist Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute (more at janegoodall.org), with a collectible Barbie doll made from recycled materials.
The Dr. Jane Goodall Barbie doll comes equipped with a notebook and a pair of binoculars and wears field attire featuring a khaki shirt, shorts, and boots.
This collectible doll is joined by a figure inspired by one of her most famous subjects, chimpanzee David Graybeard.
The Dr. Jane Goodall Barbie doll is the first in the Inspiring Women Series to be made from recycled materials.
This celebration of Dr. Jane Goodall’s decades of dedication, ground-breaking research, and heroic achievements makes a great gift for collectors and kids ages 6 years old and up.

(This and other posts on this blog contain affiliate links that may pay a small commission to this blog if you make a purchase. )

In the Shadow of Man-and chimpanzees

In 1960,26 year old Jane Goodall went to Tanzania to study chimpanzees. No one had studied chimps before, so little was known about their behavior in the wild. Biologically and genetically, chimps are closer to humans than any other animal, so scientists believed understanding their behavior could shed light on some aspects of human behavior.

Jane roamed the forests of the Gombe Stream Chimpanze Reserve in Tanzania watching the chimps first with binoculars then with direct observation at close range, even occasionally close enough to touch them. Her mother Vanne lived with her and a photographer Hugo van Lawick joined them.

Working together with nature and animals as their common interest,Jane and Hugo fell in love and married. Eventually she had a staff of research assistants and students involved in observation and reporting about the chimps and other animals.

Title page of the book I bought at a used book sale.

In this book, written 10 years later, Dr. Goodall details her years of living among the chimps and her detailed observations and conclusions about their behavior. (For which she earned her doctorate degree.)

“like humans, chimpanzees are omnivores, feeding on vegetables, insects, and meat.”
Dr Goodall

Harvest for Hope-A Guide to Mindful Eating

Jane Goodall is just as interested in people as she is in chimpanzees. Despite the title this book is not about dining while listening to soothing music by candlelight to relax and de-stress.

Jane Goodall wants us to manage stress , not so much our own, but the stress of our planet, by producing, transporting, preparing, and eating our food in ways less harmful and wasteful to us and our planet.

Our food choices affect the environment as much as the environment affects our diet.
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Goodall reflected back on her life as a child in England when her family’s food supply was limited by the shortages of a world war. Even in peacetime, they ate what was grown locally and seasonally, rather than food flown in from distant lands. Her nutrition ideas are not new or unique, but she helps us realize our food choices affect the environment as much as the environment affects our diet.

Dr. Goodall recommends buying locally grown, organic foods exclusively. She advocates a meat-free diet. She urges us to waste less. She believes we need to “take back food productions from large corporations.” By doing so, we will be healthier and so will our planet.

Dr. Jane advocates humans avoid

GMO (genetically modified organism) foods
meat
imported food
bottled water
fast food
refined processed carbs
concentrated and synthetic sweeteners
commercial oils

Dr. Jane encourages us to

Take back food production from large corporations
Waste less.
Use a filter for drinking water
Eat organic locally grown food.
Eat fruits, vegetables, legumes
Use olive oil, herbs, seasonings

Vote like our planet’s future depends on it-because it does
Dr. Jane Goodall

The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times (Global Icons Series)

In The Book of Hope, Dr. Jane focuses on her “Four Reasons for Hope”:

The Resilience of Nature,
The Amazing Human Intellect,
The Power of Young People, and
The Indomitable Human Spirit.

Looking at the headlines―the worsening climate crisis, a global pandemic, loss of biodiversity, political upheaval―it can be hard to feel optimistic. And yet hope has never been more desperately needed.

In this urgent book, Jane Goodall, the world’s most famous living naturalist, and Douglas Abrams, the internationally bestselling co-author of The Book of Joy, explore through intimate and thought-provoking dialogue one of the most sought after and least understood elements of human nature: hope.

The Book of Hope touches on vital questions, including: How do we stay hopeful when everything seems hopeless? How do we cultivate hope in our children? What is the relationship between hope and action?

Filled with moving and inspirational stories and photographs from Jane’s remarkable career, The Book of Hope is a deeply personal conversation with one of the most beloved figures in the world today.

While discussing the experiences that shaped her discoveries and beliefs, Jane tells the story of how she became a messenger of hope, from living through World War II to her years in Gombe to realizing she had to leave the forest to travel the world in her role as an advocate for environmental justice. And for the first time, she shares her profound revelations about her next, and perhaps final, adventure. (an Amazon affiliate link)

Exploring the HEART of health for people and the planet

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Doctor Aletha

In Memory of Dr. Jane Goodall.

On October 1, 2025 the Jane Goodall Institute announced her death. According to the Washington, D.C.-based institute, Goodall died of natural causes while in California on a U.S. speaking tour.

“Dr. Jane was known around the world for her 65-year study of wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania. However, in the latter part of her life she expanded her focus and became a global advocate for human rights, animal welfare, species and environmental protection, and many other crucial issues.”

Sidney Poitier-exploring the heart of justice through film and stage

Sidney Poitier had one of the most successful acting careers in history, winning numerous more awards, but more importantly appearing in productions that explored issues of race, discrimination, human rights, and justice.

This is one of those post updates I would rather not need to write. On January 6, 2022, acclaimed actor Sidney Poitier died at age 94 in his parents’ native country the Bahamas.

Although movie historians insist on recognizing him as the first Black Man to win the Best Actor Academy Award, I believe he is best remembered as a person who overcame incredible personal challenges to achieve a successful career that not only entertained but challenged the status quo and taught difficult lessons about human relationships, especially the scourge of racism.

Mr. Poitier twice portrayed physicians in movies. The first, in 1950, which was also his film debut, was in No Way Out, where as a black physician he treated a bigoted white patient. Even now, it is not unusual for a black physician to encounter rascism in white patients; in 1950 it was essentially the norm.

The next film is better known, possibly because he acted opposite two of the most successful actors of that time. In 1967 Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy played a married couple whose white daughter was engaged to a young black physician, played by Sidney Poitier. The movie, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, was nominated for the Best Movie Academy Award and won for Best Story and Screenplay.

The film was one of the few films of the time to depict an interracial marriage in a positive light, as interracial marriage historically had been illegal in most states of the United States. It was still illegal in 17 states—mostly Southern states—until June 12, 1967, six months before the film was released. Roughly two weeks after Tracy filmed his final scene (and two days after his death), anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia. (Wikipedia)

The following is taken from my original post about Mr. Poitier.

Lilies of the Field

Although his acting ability had already won critical acclaim, a young actor made movie history in 1963 in a film based on this Bible text. In Lilies of the Field , he portrayed an itinerant handyman who meets a group of German-speaking nuns living in rural Arizona. After performing a small repair on a roof for them, he naturally asks to be paid. To which the Mother Superior replies,

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”
Matthew 6:28,29 ESV

In case you’re not familiar with the reference, it’s from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount; here is the full context.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (In the Old Testament, Solomon was a King, who was the richest man in the world at that time.)

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Matthew 6, ESV

That actor went on to have one of the most successful acting careers in history, winning numerous more awards, but more importantly appearing in productions that explored issues of race, discrimination, human rights, and justice.

Sidney Poitier, now 93 years old, won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field. He was the first black man to win the best actor award, and the second black person to win any Academy award. ( Hattie McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress for her role in 1939’s Gone with the Wind, making her the first black person to be nominated for and receive an Oscar. In June 2020 HBO planned to add “historical context” to the streaming version of the movie.)

He went on to win the Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama, the first Black person to win in that in that award program. He later won the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award in 1982.

In a post on the website The New Lyceum, Joey Barretta wrote this about the actor.

Sidney Poitier was the first black actor to win the Best Actor Oscar in 1964, the same year that the Civil Rights Act was passed and a year prior to the Voting Rights Act. He rose to be a star at a time in which racism was common and his career began before segregation was abolished. This man is a true hero, albeit one who played some compelling fictional characters setting an example for the fallacy that is racism. By portraying decent men, he set an example of excellence in character that even the prejudiced whites of his day could not ignore.
J. Baretta, March 5, 2018

Cry, the Beloved Country-based on the novel about apartheid in South Africa
To Sir, With Love-social and racial tensions in an inner city school
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner – interracial marriage
A Patch of Blue and The Defiant Ones -interracial friendships
In the Heat of the Night and They Call Me Mister Tibbs!– racial bias among law enforcement professionals
Separate but Equal– portrayal of Thurgood Marshall, future Supreme Court Justice
Mandela and deKlerk-portrayal of Nelson Mandela, future President of South Africa

I’d love for you to read the original post so just follow this link.

How Lilies of the Field challenged the fallacy of racism

September 19, 2020February 28, 2021

exploring the HEART of life through literature and media

I’ll hope you’ll watch Lilies of the Field if you’ve never seen it before. And also watch some of Mr. Poitier’s other films, which add revealing context to the social justice issues our country is confronting and correcting in the 21st century. Check out this article for some suggestions .

Dr. Aletha

I also referenced the Loving vs Virginia Supreme Court case in a post I’d like for you to read also.

Say Goodbye for Now- a book review

This post reviews Say Goodby for Now. Dr. Lucy lives alone except for the menagerie of injured animals she has doctored back to life. She likes her life the way it is, until she opens her home to three unexpected and unlikely guests. The book references important historical events.