Is it time to go wild to sustain the wild? I’m writing this the week that Lehman Brothers imploded; AIG was baled out by our public dollars; the Iraq war continues to drain dollars, lives and good will; a friend wrote to let me know she had been “downsized;” many friends do not know how they will buy heating oil this winter; and I continue to wonder when the general public will realize that water is the new oil.

I continually read and hear news with the filter: what effect will this have on wild and natural lands? Think: arctic drilling, no more protection of endangered species, oil and gas exploration on public and private lands. As I see the larger and largest consequences to current policy, I get sad, angry, frustrated. I wonder what to do, knowing that I have to do something.

A letter attributed to author Vicki Noble is circulating that calls for women to be as the Maenads and go wild. She recalls the time of the second women’s liberation movement of the late 60’s and into the 70’s:

Sisters, don’t you remember? We went wild. Like the ancient Greek Maenads (or the Indian Yoginis and Tibetan Dakinis, for that matter), we cut loose. We left our husbands, threw off our repressive jobs, our bogus traditional values and conditioned knee-jerk responses. We left the churches and synagogues in droves, we left behind the corporate tracking system and the academic elitism that supported it. We opted out in favor of freedom, liberation, and authenticity. It was a magical, thrilling, and transformative revolution in which, collectively, we took back the night, owned our own bodies, and awakened to our unique human potential.

Recall the play Lysistrata, where women barricade the public funds building and withhold sex from their husbands to end the Peloponnesian War and secure peace. By doing this, Lysistrata engages the support of women from other city-states, including those at odds with the Athens. They are successful. This play by Aristophanes has such a universal appeal that it appears over and over in modern form in theatres around the globe.

While these examples are of women taking power, stories about Maenads and Lysistrata call forth those who have historically been the underclass to make a big noise. It is time for women and men who are not part of the dominant power structure to step up in a big way.

This will look different for each of us. Here are some questions to help you shape your role and your voice (I include myself in this, of course). How often do you opt for being polite and accepting rather than strong and courageous? How often do you sit back down and say, “Oh, well, ok then” when you are thanked politely for speaking, but those in power do not act on your words? Does fear of being called pushy or worse hold you back? Fear of retribution from those who hold more power and money? Do you think you don’t have the answers or solutions? Do you really think our policymakers have better answers than you? Do you think you do not have the time to do much?

Now is the time to let loose your energy and your passion to create change. How many of us–men and women–hold back from jumping into the fray and really creating the change we want? Let us all wildly, freely demand in all venues that our voices be heard and respected and that we become equal players in creating policy that affects us. What will you do now–what action will you commit to? Let it be small or large, but let it begin now!

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