No time like the present

Many people have wondered about how quickly my trip abroad came up, and said that they realized I had been thinking about doing such a thing but not that it would come up so quickly. “I remember that you mentioned it at happy hour,” one of my friends remarked. I figure that the only way to get underway in something new – particularly if it’s wildly out of the ordinary and something that takes quite a bit of initiative – is to do it as soon as you can. It felt good to surprise people with the fact that indeed, my plane flight was at the end of this week, not a procrastinated date in the future. Even some of the people who I had explained so fully what I was trying to do with the establishment of my enterprise were surprised that I was in action. It is funny how people react as the time passes during and after the trip – many of your acquaintances don’t realize until you return that you had ever gone. I noticed this primarily when good friends of mine went biking across the states and were busy telling people about the trip only months after they'd come up with the idea.

I have a framed photo of Russell Train (1920- ), taken while reclined in his office at the world wildlife fund after his career government stint as the environmental protection guru. Indeed, he may have influenced environmental conservation as much as anyone in the 20th century. On safari in Africa around the age of 35, Train fell in love with the place, and thought that more money should go into wildlife conservation on the continent. He returned to Washington and began the papers for incorporation of his African Wildlife Leadership Foundation, which supported education of conservation workers in Africa—to achieve it he raised money in the States and offered scholarships to study and return to work in Africa for several years.

It worked, and it led to his career of more than forty years conserving natural places in America and abroad. The outcome interests me less than the initiative that it took to take the opportunity as it lie before him. Since we’re presented with so few in life, we ought to snatch them up when they come along. Train began printing newsletters, calling people for meetings during his spare time, and establishing more contacts with people already working in conservation, which in the 1960’s and 1970’s were relatively few. The personal motivation that he had mustered in the establishment of the AWLF paid off, and in the late 1960’s Train was offered posts at newly created agencies of the Nixon administration, notably the Council on Environmental Quality and the EPA. All of this is a way of saying that by taking the chance when it was ripe--it wouldn’t have happened the same way if he had waited--he gave himself a role in the environmental movement. How would he have known what he might do if he hadn’t seen the opportunity and seized it the minute he got home. Think of a beautiful woman walking by on the street: she passes only once.

In younger years it seems particularly difficult to discern what is what. How will the next few years turn out--the next five? There are many decisions and opportunities in this short life. But we’re lucky that so many of them seem big and difficult, because it allows us to do amazing things. And some do seem to come at us full stop--they take a big commitment and its in our nature to hesitate. While you make yourself vulnerable in making the decision, vulnerability is what gives you time to grow into the decision and embrace it. For all the inspiration in life, here's to help my friends and so many who inspire me to push ahead.

"In the 21st century, from here--five years more--the first question that people are going ask after your income per capita is how much [carbon] we emit."

"En este siglo XXI de aquí a cinco años lo primero que van a preguntar después del ingreso per capita es cuanto emite [de emisiones de carbono]" – Ricardo Lagos