Where Are the Wild Things?

It sure would be nice if we could locate just where the feral, aggressive part of the brain lies. Is it in the frontal lobe, in the reptilian brain, deep within the medial temporal lobe, or just where? I’m not sure even if all those creepy, crawly negative tendencies in human nature could be precisely located and mapped that it would guarantee much of anything, except maybe an army of emotionless zombies. Biological and medical approaches to emotional and behavioral dysfunction are one thing and may go some way to relieving all the negative behavior around us—individual, social, political. But there are still the spiritual aspects of aggression and violence that must be plumbed. Grandiosity, pride, envy, power, fear. These can’t be alleviated or transcended with shock treatments or chemicals. They require a new perspective or a change of heart.

And first of all they require honesty.

“Everything is fine.” “I’m okay.” “I can handle it.” These refrains just won’t do if we expect to live with comfort in our own skins, improve social conditions, or bring peace to a violent planet. The first step is to face the items in our Pandora’s box and to recognize our powerlessness over them. Only then can the healing begin or the miracles occur.

One of my favorite children’s stories is Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. Max misbehaves and is sent to his room without his dinner. So he gets into his imaginary boat with all his resentments and discontent and goes to where the wild things are. These fears, insecurities, and unexpressed horrors meet him on the bank, and “they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws.”The challenge of faith is met by Max. He stares into all the wild things’ eyes and doesn’t blink once! Not once. And being thus tamed, he proceeds to party with them!We, too, can go to where our wild things are, knowing and assimilating the deepest truth in our spiritual arsenal: “Fear not.” Those words were spoken by God to Abraham as he started out on a journey that would lead him far from home. It was the announcement of the angels on a hillside outside Bethlehem. Fear not, for behold, there is indescribable good news that awaits us—God is with us. With God, what is there to fear?As we confront our fears, staring them in the eyes without blinking once can transform us. In such a place of radical openness, God’s love can make a dwelling and tame and heal all that wildness.