The Power and Promise of Humane Education
Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times
Claude and Medea: The Hellburn Dogs
So, You Love Animals: An Action-Packed, Fun-Filled Book to Help Kids Help Animals
I love traveling, even though I’m well aware of the carbon footprint I leave when I fly far from home. Traveling is one of my less-than-MOGO (most good) choices, although I do try to minimize my impact, stay in eco-friendly places, and take some comfort knowing that I am positively affecting those who rely on tourism for their livelihoods. Where I live near Acadia National Park I’m reminded all the time that, without tourism, many of my friends and neighbors would have little income, so I try to be a “good traveler” when I leave Maine and support local economies even as I leave my own for awhile.
I went on vacation to Belize a few weeks ago, because for years I’ve wanted to explore the coral reefs to see the incredible undersea life that abounds there. What I didn’t expect, or plan for, was the amazing day I spent with two Mayan brothers in a jungle preserve.
I had half a day and an evening after I left the small atoll island where I’d stayed for 5 days before my flight home, and I decided to head to a somewhat remote national park where there was a single lodge that housed those who wished to explore this beautiful jungle and its myriad waterfalls. I was the only visitor, and the cook was ill, so when I arrived, the only people at the lodge were two young Mayan men, the lodge caretakers.
I spent the afternoon hiking up to the waterfalls with one of them. I asked lots of questions about his life, and he introduced me to lots of edible jungle plants, while asking questions about my life. When we returned to the lodge, his brother told us that the power was out, so we spent a couple of hours that evening talking by candlelight, eating the nuts and papaya I brought to share and talking about our lives. Although I had spent a week reveling in the eye candy of the coral reefs, this day and night may well have been the highlight of my trip.
In the end, my favorite part about traveling is usually not the great sights, the ruins, the flora and fauna, or learning about the history of another place, but rather truly connecting with other people and learning from and sharing with them. This is when I usually laugh, and sometimes cry, and always grow the most. I make new friends and feel like I am giving back a part of myself after all I’ve received.
Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm and Above All, Be Kind
Image courtesy of tacogirl via Creative Commons.
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Filed under: gratitude, MOGO (Most Good) | Tagged: air travel, Belize, connection, flying, local economy, MOGO choices, personal growth, relationships, tourism, traveling | Comments Off
It’s bizarrely warm in Maine. The ice on our pond broke up a month early, and we haven’t had a snowstorm since January. The only remnants of snow and ice are deep in the woods. So on a 60-degree March day, I decided to work in the garden and prepare it for spring (I know it’s officially spring, but spring in Maine is in May). There was lots of work to do: removing the straw mulch, pulling up the black cloths that have served as walking paths, yanking out the deep roots of the brassicas and sunflowers that were too strong to pull up in the fall, all in preparation for adding compost and tilling it in next month.
Please 
This past weekend I watched two disturbing movies: Woody Allen’s Whatever Works and Shutter Island. Whatever Works was not meant to be disturbing, but in typical Woody Allen fashion, the protagonist raises persistent questions about humanity’s cruelty and destructiveness, and for some reason, this particular time, such rants left me less amused and more despondent. Shutter Island is a dark movie about people who have perpetrated the worst imaginable atrocities, with Holocaust visuals to boot. So after a weekend of these two films, I was aching for some renewed hope and faith. As luck would have it (or, more accurately, as lack of luck would result in), I got my wish.
This 
Believe it or not my inner complainer was in full bloom during a nine-day vacation in Belize. Yes, when I was at my most privileged – getting to snorkel and scuba dive at a remote atoll – I was complaining (and not always to myself!). So much for my New Year’s resolution. And what was my inner complainer harping upon? Mostly the weather (it was cloudy, cold and windy almost every day), but also the food (despite assurances, they did not have any vegetarian entrees, so I had a lot of mashed potatoes and coleslaw). I had one truly justifiable complaint – the owners of the island on which we stayed were nasty to their employees and treated them terribly disrespectfully – but really, the weather?
Recently, I tried to help a friend who’s facing a crisis that includes financial challenges by sending a check to cover some of her unexpected, huge bills. She returned my check (along with a beautiful letter) because although the crisis is big, she couldn ’t accept the financial help. I found myself dejected. I totally understood her perspective. It’s hard to accept what feels to many like charity. Although we may be deeply charitable people ourselves, being the recipient of someone else’s help can feel like a burden, something we can’t ever “repay,” and for some, it can even feel humiliating. I called my friend and shared with her my dismay and sadness that she returned my check. I think I guilt-tripped her into accepting my gift – albeit in a different form that was more palatable to her – but what I tried to convey is that giving brings people joy (something she actually knew well as a giver to many over many years), and that it brought me great happiness to be able to help. We had a wonderful conversation – another gift – and I realized just how important it is not only to be generous and giving ourselves, but to receive with open arms the gifts of others.
Do you ever find yourself subtly (or not so subtly) apologizing for your out-of-the-mainstream-but-very-conscious MOGO (most good) choices because you want to put others at ease and diffuse any defensiveness or awkwardness? Do you struggle to reassure people that you’re really quite normal even though your ___________ choices (fill in the blank with lifestyle, food, clothing, transportation, product, entertainment, etc.) differ from the vast majority of people in our culture, including theirs? Do you periodically practice a sort of false humility and laugh-at-yourself-for-your-oddball-ways attitude?
I’m frustrated by my seeming inability to reach the numbers of people I’d like to reach with humane education. Twenty years ago, I began regularly visiting schools and colleges, giving humane education presentations on pressing global issues. Within a few years, I was reaching about 10,000 people a year. I co-founded the 
My blog post today is simply to 
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