Wild
Things
“Wildlife
and the Wild Woman are both endangered species...Over time, we have
seen the feminine instinctive nature looted, driven back, and
overbuilt. For long periods, it has been mismanaged like wildlife and
wild-lands...The spiritual lands of the Wild Woman have, throughout
history, been plundered or burnt, dens bulldozed, and natural cycles
forced into unnatural rhythms to please others.”
Clarissa
Pinkola Estes (Women Who Run With the Wolves, Singing Over the Bones,
p.3)
As people have migrated
into cities to find jobs, and left the rural areas, their concern for
all things wild has diminished. When we allow drilling in wilderness
areas, when we do not properly manage all the millions of acres
preserved for forest land and green space, we further damage the
ecosystems of millions of species—ourselves included. When we allow
the oceans to fill with plastic waste, and when we over-fish and
over-graze areas of protected sea and land, we fail to honorably
steward our planet—our Mother Earth. Never has this been more
pronounced, nor had a greater impact than right now. And the
crossover between disregarding the earth and disregarding the
feminine nature of the earth bleeds into disregard for women and
girls. Just this week, our president chose to trash the widow of a
distinguished senator and World War II veteran, John Dingell—allowing
no restraint for her grief or her husband's service. That tone
carries through the country. It shows up when we are more concerned
with Duke Power Company's ability to dump coal-ash into ponds that
leach into our waterways, than with the people who live downstream,
who are turning up with a variety of cancers of dubious origin. Or,
when we choose to roll back incentives to renewable energy sources,
instead of continuing to pollute our air with carbon dioxide from
coal-fired power plants.
Preservation of wild things—whether it's animal species, forests, or wetlands—is an
essential part of caring for the earth, and not some liberal ploy to
control the flow of money. As we denigrate the earth, we will
feel justified in denigrating all that is feminine. Case in point,
recently one municipality of Birmingham, captured fourteen coyotes,
and instead of taking them out into a rural area and releasing them,
they simply killed them. That's supreme disregard for the rights of
wild things to survive. Having lost their habitat, they adapted by
moving into areas populated by humans. It was not the coyotes' choice
to move into town; it was forced by over-development encroaching on
their wild lands.
Will we learn to share the land with our wildlife?
Will the message of peace and good-will extend to all living beings?
I hope so, since our own survival depends upon the good will of
Mother Earth. And, right now, she's not too happy with us.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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