There’s a wonderful Buddhist saying that I often share with audiences when I speak, and it’s this: When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. So for me, there were wonderful teachers who were in the front of the classroom. There were wonderful librarians in the public library. But the teachers were also the crows, and the earthworms, and my dog, and my parakeet, and you know, the lizard that you would meet when you travel.
They’re everywhere, and our job, I think, is to recognize those teachers, because they’re all around us. I had a fantastic journalism teacher in high school, Mr. Clarkson, who I will never, ever forget. And before I met Mr. Clarkson, I think I thought a lot about being a veterinarian because I wanted to help animals. But Mr. Clarkson, and also reading newspapers as I was growing up, really showed me the power that we have with our words to help animals, none of whom will ever read anything. Some of them might eat the paper the words are printed on, but
The problems that animals face in this world, they’re all, almost all of them, of our making. Inadvertently. People don’t want to ruin the habitat for snow leopards, and most people love snow leopards. You know, if you met a tree kangaroo, you would never wanna hurt it. It looks like a Dakin toy designed by Dr. Seuss, you know?
But as a writer, you can show people what’s happening, and hand their power back to them, to protect this sweet, green world. And other writers, other animals, Mr. Clarkson in the front of the classroom, all these teachers have showed me that.
