{"id":2803,"date":"2023-07-17T07:42:13","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T11:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2803"},"modified":"2023-07-17T07:43:12","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T11:43:12","slug":"wild-and-untamed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/17\/wild-and-untamed\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild and Untamed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>.

Yellowstone National Park is one of the most spectacular places on earth.

Larger than the combined acreage of Delaware and Rhode Island, the world\u2019s first protected wilderness area boasts more than half of our planet\u2019s geysers and hot springs, a large alpine lake, bountiful wildlife, its very own \u201cgrand canyon,\u201d and the distinction of sitting atop an active super-volcano. 

It also happens to be one of the most dangerous tourist destinations on earth.

Lee Whittlesey (shown above), who retired last May after nearly 50 years as a Yellowstone park ranger and historian, has documented more than 350 deaths (aside from car and snowmobile accidents) that have taken place within the park\u2019s boundaries over the past century and a half.  His book Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park<\/em> launched a whole new genre of page-turners about things that can go wrong in America\u2019s wilderness areas. 

The book is both harrowing and very hard to put down. 

Yellowstone visitors have been scalded to death in boiling hot springs, eaten alive by grizzly bears, poisoned by innocent-looking plants, struck by lightning, gored by bison, crushed by falling rocks, buried in avalanches, and killed by 500-foot falls while trying to take selfies.  Aside from that, a day at Yellowstone is just a walk in the park.

Whittlesey explains, \u201cIt\u2019s not a sanitized city park.  People think it\u2019s like Disneyland and safe.  But we have animals here that can eat you.  People need to understand that.\u201d

Most disasters can be avoided, of course, if people simply pay attention to the safety brochures they receive at the gate.  Stay on the trails.  Don\u2019t feed the bears.  Don\u2019t leave the boardwalks in the geyser basins.  Don\u2019t go past the sign at the edge of the canyon that says don\u2019t go past this sign.<\/em>

Whittlesey recounts stories of people who simply can\u2019t resist looking down the blowhole of Old Faithful, or who put their children atop a bison so they can take a really cute picture.  One tourist told him that the animal trainer wasn\u2019t doing a particularly good job, since a number of the animals still seemed to be wild and untamed.

That would be because they are, in fact, wild and untamed. 

From time to time there are earnest calls to ramp up Yellowstone\u2019s warnings.  Rangers, it is urged, should build fences around every hot spring and put up signs that say, \u201cThis is exceedingly dangerous.\u201d

But there are over 10,000 hot springs within the park.  All those fences and signs would virtually eliminate the experience of wilderness \u2013 the inspiring, soul-restoring reason that brings most people to Yellowstone in the first place.  Danger is an inherent part of the adventure. 

Whittlesey describes the park as \u201cnature in your face.\u201d  Yellowstone must be experienced on its own terms, not according to the personal whims and expectations of its many visitors.

The same thing is true with God.

All too many churchgoers go through life as if God is a safe, domesticated, stained-glass heavenly therapist who is \u201chere for us.\u201d  We certainly don\u2019t expect to be told that we\u2019re supposed to encounter God on his<\/em> terms. 

Sometimes it takes someone like atheist author and social activist Barbara Ehrenreich to awaken our senses. 

A few years ago she surprised her fans by writing a book with the provocative title Living With a Wild God<\/em>.  Ehrenreich recalls something that happened when she was 17 years old while walking alone on an empty street just before dawn.

\u201cI found whatever I had been looking for\u2026 There were no visions, no prophetic voices or visits by totemic animals, just this blazing everywhere.  It poured into me and I poured out into it\u2026  It was a furious encounter with a living substance\u2026 \u2018Ecstasy\u2019 would be the word for this, but only if you acknowledge [that it] does not occupy the same spectrum as happiness or euphoria, that it\u2026can resemble an outbreak of violence.\u201d

Furious encounter.  Ecstasy.  An outbreak of violence. <\/em>

Does that sound like your last visit to a place of worship?

Ehrenreich still describes herself as an atheist.  But if there really is Something or Someone out there, Ehrenreich believes she knows from personal experience that that Being is wild. <\/em>

It\u2019s worth noting that the Bible thinks God is wild, too.  He speaks to a trembling Job out of darkness and storm (Job 38-40), shatters Isaiah with a vision of his utter holiness (Isaiah 6), and brings Moses to his knees in fear and awe (Exodus 3-6).   

In C.S. Lewis\u2019 Chronicles of Narnia<\/em>, an enormous lion named Aslan represents Christ.  The Narnians \u2013 whether they love Aslan or fear him \u2013 quickly learn that \u201che is not a tame lion.\u201d 

The God who is really there, likewise, will not be kept in a box.  Nor can he be taken out on a leash.  Religious programs will never keep him at bay.  He\u2019s not our Personal Assistant \u2013 someone we keep on retainer in case we need some help or advice later today.

It may be alarming to discover that God turns out to be wild and untamed.

But it\u2019s even more exhilarating to learn from experience that when it comes to providing security, he also happens to be the original Old Faithful.   
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Yellowstone National Park is one of the most spectacular places on earth. Larger than the combined acreage of Delaware and Rhode Island, the world\u2019s first protected wilderness area boasts more than half of our planet\u2019s geysers and hot springs, a large alpine lake, bountiful wildlife, its very own \u201cgrand canyon,\u201d and… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[441],"class_list":["post-2803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gods-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2803"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2806,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803\/revisions\/2806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}