Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger
We have a problem with our understanding of wildness. It’s an old problem, going back as far as anyone can remember. It’s a semantic line in the sand that places humanity on one side and nature on the other.
Out of Control
Wildness makes us uncomfortable, especially when it comes to children. Look at those kids, they’re running wild, we might say.
Sometimes we say this out of genuine concern - anyone who has ever been a parent knows that when the energy level gets too high, somebody’s going to end up crying.
Other times we’re simply uncomfortable with unruliness, disorder, things outside of our control. In this case the word “wild” is associated with chaos and misbehavior.
As Things Should Be
Photo by Michael Charters
Now let’s talk about a meadow, say South Fork Meadows on San Gorgonio Mountain. The meadow is a designated wild place - but it’s not a loud, unruly or out of control place. In this case “wildness” seems quite peaceful with a very strong sense that everything is as it should be.
I find it striking that wildness is overwhelmingly positive when we talk about nature. Wild animals may be dangerous but they are not deranged, they are acting in accord with their instincts.
But when we talk about humans wildness suggests that are somehow missing the mark. We’re better than that. Our wild hair should be combed and our wild pitches should have a little more discipline.
This Goes Way Back
Photo by Fedor Selivanov
It’s easy to think that our discomfort with wildness is a modern perspective. Most of us rarely see the Earth as God intended it. We exist entirely in a man-made environment.
But our fear of the wild goes back to our earliest recorded memories. The Epic of Gilgamesh, a Mesopotamian anthology of creation myths, tells about the civilization of the wild man Enkidu. Everyone in the story feels a bit uncomfortable with a wild man living in nature, eating grass like a gazelle, and they aren’t happy until they have converted him to city life.
The Grand Bargain
There’s another factor about this split between humanity and the wilderness. A person can enter the wilderness without too much ill effect - John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, Edward Abbey. But there is a price to pay, otherwise you risk becoming the subject of a Jon Krakauer novel.
Robert Bly talks about the toll demanded by Nature in his book Iron John, describing a Native American myth in which people made a pact with the Buffalo Spirit - they would give up one of their own daughters in exchange for a good hunt that year.
This story, and hundreds like it, suggest that a compact was made sometime in the past between the human realm, and the agreement seems to be a tough one, providing obligations and rights on each side. Moreover, we gather that the eaten buffalo gallops up the ravine the next year; the buffalo sacrificed is soon reborn. And a human being crosses to their side when one of them crosses to ours.
The Wild Man
Pedro Gonzalez and Catherine via Ripley's
Bly goes on to talk at length about the Wild Man, a hairy creature who lives at the center of a deep dark forest and who will either destroy those who cross his path or reward them with wisdom and gold.
In the story of Iron Hans, wildness is a curse. Hans was once a rich and noble prince who was cursed to live naked and hairy in the wilderness. He is only released from this curse when a young boy recognizes his wisdom. The same themes show up in the tale of Beauty and the Beast.
The Bible records a number of wild men in its pages, probably the most famous is Nebuchadnezzar who was cursed by God to eat grass like an ox. Apparently this kind of disordered behavior happens often enough that psychiatry has a name for it, boanthropy.
The Union of Man and Wild
Christ in the Wilderness by Stanley Spencer
The synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) record the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, spanning a symbolic 40 days. He emerged whole, empowered and ready to rumble. But I think that a lot of modern preaching misses the point, focussing on Christ’s ability to resist three particular temptations.
The story of Jesus in the desert is also a story of a man who emerges with his psyche intact, with no division between his human self and his wild self.
Hemingway picks up this theme in the Old Man and the Sea. Santiago, an old man at the end of his career and life and struggling with a record streak of bad luck, strikes out one more time. But this time he goes too far.
Santiago’s life-and-death struggle with the sea is ultimately a re-enactment of the passion of the Christ. In a sense he loses everything at the end but in another sense he emerges with his wild nature and human nature aligned.
The Resolution
The final chapter in this story of man vs wild is yet unwritten. The planet faces a climate catastrophe. Humankind will need to make some kind of ultimate bargain with the wild in order to survive. It’s either that or we will find ourselves living in a bubble.
How to Go a Little Wild
Jason Ward gets in touch with nature in Central Park.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/3/18291212/birding-youtube-nature-show-documentary-topic-animals-jason-ward