What it Means to be Wild at Heart

I've been using AI audio summaries to work through my growing reading list. Two landed back to back that covered remarkably similar ground. Wild at Heart by John Eldredge and Soulcraft by Bill Plotkin. Both argue that modern life puts people in cages. Both say we need to break free. That's where the similarities end.

Wild at Heart frames the problem through a rigid masculine lens. Three desires hardwired into every man. Three separate ones for women. A wound that can only be healed by older men. I agree with the book's diagnosis. Religion can put people in boxes. So can capitalism, healthcare, and education. But the prescription didn't sit right. The book doesn't free men from boxes. It offers a different box. A traditional masculinity cage dressed up as liberation.

Then came Soulcraft. Same territory, completely different roots. Plotkin uses the metaphor of a caterpillar whose immune system attacks its own butterfly cells. He argues our ego does the same thing when our deeper purpose tries to emerge. His answer isn't a framework for what wildness should look like. It's compassion toward the parts of us that kept us safe, and trust that wholeness is already inside.

This essay lands on something personal. I recently put purple nail polish on some of my fingers. Not a statement about identity. A statement about wholeness. I surf overhead waves with purple on my hands. I run wilderness retreats. I do hard things. And I'm also the guy with polish on his fingers flashing a peace sign. That's not a contradiction. That's strength and love in the same body. That's Heart-Strong.

Read the full piece on Substack.

Learn more about the adventure at www.heart-strong.org.