looking back over my sporadic postings, i pleasantly remember writing ‘playing in the wild’ just about one season ago, at the autumnal equinox. that seems fitting as i prepare to put together some further musings about an apparent explosion about things ‘wild.’ there’s the brand new feature film starring Reese Witherspoon, based upon the memoir by Cheryl Strayed, both called ‘wild’. i haven’t seen the movie yet, but will soon. i’ve begun the book which i’m struggling with because of the intense emotionality and vulnerability (i’ve been having more trouble reading again, lately anyway, thanks brain!). the other book title that i’m prioritizing is ‘the wild truth’, which tells the sister’s story in relation to Chris McCandless, whose life/death were popularized by the book/film ‘into the wild.’ at the same time, i have three very new books all circling around this notion called ‘rewilding’, including a facebook group of the same name!
this is a starting point where i gather together ideas, other folk’s words and feelings, and weave them together. i will write something more for a future issue of ReVision on ecology that i’m editing. so this is part rough draft, part making the path while walking, and an attempt to begin somewhere.
let me say upfront that i have not thoroughly read most of these books, so this first response is in the realm of intuitive cultural feelings. i made note of three general themes that i hope to dwell on in this, and future, writing: relationship between the self & other (usually NATURE, but also human societies); in turn, how a person’s self-identity is shaped, transformed and expressed; and finally, how these narratives fall into a scarcity model.
these are all particularly valuable ethnoautobiographical conversations, as they get to the heart of our sense-of-self, our relationship with nature and place, and of course how we accept or critique (to whatever fluid degree) the dominant cultural narrative in which we are surrounded (or more likely bombarded!).
some of these stories seem to fall on the wildness-on-the-inside path, that is, how might we find, reclaim, reconnect, nurture, etc. a sense of ‘wildness’ (it might be good to get clarity about what people even feel it is) in ourselves. and another grouping could be following the path of how might we protect, defend, conserve, etc. wildness-out-there. and certainly some are on the in-between path, where i often find myself.
before i pause for now, i find myself stuck at what wildness is…
is it places devoid of people?
is it a certain dangerous uncertainty?
is it embodiment?
is it places inhabited by wild things, real or projected (ie, cultural/personal shadow material)?
is it freedom?
is it a grounded, holistic, and healing presence in the world?
is it uncivilized, passionate, creative abandon?
i wonder where this path is going to lead…