A chance discussion on a starry evening in Botswana, Africa, in 2019 launched an unlikely writing project that teamed the creator of the Mutts comic strip with the Dalai Lama and a prominent La Jolla couple.
Cartoonist Patrick McDonnell was on a safari with Jerry Cesak, former “Jeff and Jer” radio personality, and Jerry’s wife, Pam. The men were colleagues on the National Humane Society board at the time.
As talk turned to the beauty and exotic creatures around them, Pam related a comment by the Dalai Lama, whom the Cesaks had visited in Dharamshala, India, where the Buddhist leader has lived in exile since 1959 following the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1951.
Pam long has served on the board of the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), a nonprofit group that promotes human rights, freedoms and preservation of the Tibetan culture.
The Dalai Lama visits with San Diegans Pam, right, and Jerry Cesak during their visit to his home in Dharamshala, India in 2012.
(Courtesy photo)
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, had observed that people come and go and regimes change, but we have only one planet to call home, and we must care for it and protect it.
That simple, yet profound observation prompted Karen O’Connell, Patrick’s wife and business manager, to suggest that they collaborate with the Dalai Lama on a project.
Zoom forward to Jan. 24, more than three years later. A 144-page book will be released. Called “Heart to Heart: A Conversation on Love and Hope for Our Precious Planet,” with the words of the Dalai Lama and illustrations by McDonnell, the work is being referred to as a compassionate revolution for protecting our planet and its inhabitants.
The publisher is HarperOne, a division of HarperCollins dedicated to inspirational books, with proceeds going to ICT. Foreign rights already have been sold to several countries.
It’s the first project like this in which His Holiness has ever been depicted as an illustration, Pam says. She worked closely with McDonnell and her longtime friend and ICT board colleague Tencho Gyatso in Washington, D.C.
Tencho is the niece of the Dalai Lama, whose birth name is Tenzin Gyatso. They scoured books, speeches, public appearance videos and other works of the Dalai Lama, culling his quotes regarding the planet, environment, climate change and animals.
They forwarded these to McDonnell, who built a story around them starring an inquisitive giant panda troubled by changes in the world. The panda decides to travel to Dharamshala to seek the advice and wisdom of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.
“We all fell in love with the project,” Pam says. As work progressed, Tencho forwarded sections to the Dalai Lama’s staff for input.
“It wasn’t for us to change one word in his quotes,” Pam says. “But we would get them back changed ever so slightly so they read in a more perfect way.”
“I was nervous about doing the project, but honored and humbled,” McDonnell said in a phone interview from his New Jersey home. He describes the book’s words as simple yet powerful. Adding illustrations makes readers slow down and magnifies the effect of the words.
A veteran at drawing animals, McDonnell called it a challenge to portray the Dalai Lama. “He has so much joy in his face. He is so expressive.” But capturing the emotions — facial expressions, body language and warmth — help tell the story.
The Dalai Lama’s changes were minor but added to the authenticity. “I drew a picture of him as a young child and drew the hat a little too pointy and long,” says the artist. He adjusted it to be more rounded and redrew a bird to have it more accurately depict a bird in Tibet. Other changes simply involved correcting Tibetan spellings or tweaking a Buddhist quote.
McDonnell chose a panda, after considering the mythical Tibetan Yeti (abominable snowman) or using an animal character from Mutts, because giant pandas live in Tibet, symbolize endangered species and were mentioned by the Dalai Lama in his book, “My Tibet.”
As McDonnell drew, he played a CD of music and meditations by the Dalai Lama to set the mood.
“Heart to Heart” is comprised of McDonnell’s drawings and storyline, with the words coming from His Holiness. Nevertheless, the project has taken a village to create, Cesak says. This is reflected in back-of-the-book acknowledgments.
Jane Goodall, who previously collaborated with McDonnell on a children’s book about her childhood, “Me … Jane,” wrote a note calling “Heart to Heart” a “blueprint for how we should live, with love, compassion — and humor.”
Actor Richard Gere, chair of the ICT board since 1995, wrote a letter cautioning, “Our time may be running out. This delightful book will help us reorient our priorities and wake us up to our high purpose.””
Although based on illustrations, “Heart to Heart” is not a children’s book.
“It reaches people of all ages with a simple, positive message of an individual taking action on the small things you can do to save our planet,” Cesak says.
McDonnell, who recently took a six-month sabbatical from writing his daily syndicated strip to finish the project, is prepping for a national book tour, much via Zoom. Included will be an online event with Gere hosted in February by Warwick’s bookstore in La Jolla.
The Dalai Lama won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 in recognition of his nonviolent campaign over nearly four decades to end China’s domination of his homeland.
He visited San Diego in 2012 for a symposium and returned in 2017 to give a commencement address at UC San Diego. Now 87, he no longer travels the world giving speeches as in past years but remains active and engaged.
He wrote a note that appears at the end of “Heart to Heart.” It says, in part: “It is my hope that this book will open the eyes, minds and hearts of all people, particularly young people, to the importance of kindness and compassion toward our environment, on which we so depend for our survival.”
Jerry Cesak says, “Patrick’s illustrations and the Dalai Lama’s words are so powerful the book made me cry.”
He is proud of his wife for pulling the people and pieces together to make the book happen.
McDonnell’s written credits, acknowledging those who helped him, start with the Dalai Lama, followed by Pam Cesak.
“I never thought I would ever be thanked second to the Dalai Lama,” she laughs.
Now that pandemic travel restrictions have eased, the Cesaks, along with McDonnell and his wife, hope to travel to Dharamshala to visit the Dalai Lama in April. It will be McDonnell’s first face-to-face meeting with the Buddhist monk and leader.
