The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times(39)

Derek was badly damaged in World War Two when his plane was shot down. He was told he would never walk again. He was determined to prove the doctors wrong and he succeeded! (JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE/COURTESY OF THE GOODALL FAMILY)



“That’s so inspiring,” I said. “It makes me think of my father’s accident, too. He fell down a flight of stairs, almost exactly five years before he died. My dad suffered a very serious traumatic brain injury that left him delirious for over a month. We were told that he might never come back or be himself again. When he finally came back to his right mind, my brother said he was sorry my dad had endured such a traumatic experience. My dad responded, ‘Oh, no, not at all. It’s all part of my curriculum.’”

“What a great way to put it,” Jane said. “Yes—all life’s challenges are like our own individual curriculums that we must work hard to follow and master.”

“In that small perceptual shift, my dad had been able to reframe a negative experience more positively and to find meaning in it,” I said. “The fall and recovery were harrowing, and yet the last five years of his life were filled with deep psychological growth and even richer relationships with his family and friends. Archbishop Tutu once explained to me that suffering can either embitter us or ennoble us, and it tends to ennoble us if we are able to make meaning out of our suffering and use it for the benefit of others.”

“Yes.” Jane nodded. “And I know your son has recently been in a serious accident and has also been quite resilient,” Jane said, her voice etched with concern.

It was true. My son, Jesse, had been in a surfing accident a month before Jane and I met in Tanzania and was suffering from his own traumatic brain injury as well as a broken occipital bone. “He has been in extreme pain but has also shown remarkable resiliency and hopefulness. And, as the research on resilience shows, having a sense of humor helps. Jesse actually started doing stand-up comedy as part of his healing.”

“Yes, having a sense of humor really is helpful,” Jane said. “I remember a story Derek told me. He was just out of hospital and on crutches. He had to meet someone at the Ritz Hotel. When he sat, he forgot both his legs were in plaster casts—they shot out stiffly in front of him”—Jane demonstrated for me, kicking both her legs straight out—“knocking over the table so that teapot, cups, milk—the lot—flew in all directions. There was a moment of shocked embarrassment, then Derek began to laugh and soon the whole table, and even the dignified waiter and people from nearby tables, joined in.”


Chris Koch, a personal hero, and a perfect example of an indomitable spirit. (JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE/SUSANA NAME)



I thought about all those other people that I had heard about who had overcome personal disaster, all those whose lives are inspirational, who illustrate the indomitable human spirit. I asked Jane if she had any more examples to share with me.

Jane told me about Chris Koch, a Canadian who was born with no arms and no legs—just short stumps for arms and one extremely short leg stump. He gets around on a long board—and there is virtually nothing he can’t do. He travels on his own around the world, goes in for marathons, drives tractors—and is an excellent inspirational speaker.

“His parents never told him he couldn’t do what his brothers and sisters did,” Jane explained. “They always told him he could do anything. They never said, ‘Oh, you can’t do that.’ His eyes shine with intelligence and a love of life. I asked him whether people have offered him prosthetic limbs and he replied, ‘Well, yes they have, but I think that I’ve been put together this way for a purpose. I think I’ll stay as I am.’ But then after a pause, and with a twinkle in his eyes, he said, ‘But I might take them up on it when I decide to climb Mount Everest.’”

As we sipped our coffee and told these stories, I felt uplifted just by talking about these examples of the indomitable human spirit and thinking about their hopefulness and bravery.





The Spirit That Never Surrenders



“Earlier you said Churchill provided an example of an indomitable human spirit,” I said. “Can you say more about how he influenced you and others during World War Two?”

“Yes, indeed I can,” Jane answered. “It was Churchill’s indomitable spirit and his belief in the British people that inspired them and called out their courage and their determination not to be beaten by Hitler.

“I think the whole experience of growing up during that war helped to shape who I am,” she continued. “Even though I was only five years old when it began, I knew or sensed what was going on. I felt the atmosphere. Everything seemed bleak and hopeless—after all, for a time Britain stood alone after the occupation or surrender of most of the other European countries. Our army wasn’t prepared. Our navy wasn’t prepared. Our air force was puny, compared with the Luftwaffe.”

I remembered reading about this terrible time in history when it looked like Hitler would win the war and occupy Britain; and, listening to Jane, who’d lived through this moment, I could sense the fear the people of Britain must have felt.

“Cutting through the despair came Churchill’s speeches,” Jane continued, “sharing his belief that Britain would never be defeated, and the speeches brought forth the fighting spirit in the British people. His most famous speech was delivered when Germany had defeated and overrun much of Europe and things looked really bad for the Allied forces. But Churchill inspired people with his rousing words, saying that we would defend our island to the very end, we would never give up, we would fight the enemy on the beaches and in the fields and in the hills and in the streets. We would never surrender. There was tumultuous applause at the end of this speech; and during this someone overheard Churchill mutter to a friend, ‘And we’ll fight them with the butt ends of broken beer bottles because that’s bloody well all we’ve got.’”