Wolves II - A. Swapp 2012

(I will celebrate my breaking the 60,000 visits with a piece of original writing.........Thank you people! Drop by again soon and you know you could always leave a comment!?)

 Found this circulating the web lately and it irritated the heck out of me

It's from 'Women who Run with the Wolves' by Clarissa-Pinkola-Estes who is a noted poet and feminist writer of great renown and respect and whilst I appreciate it is not meant literally, it struck me as so pretentious it deserved to be challenged and is not based upon any knowledge of the wolf that I am aware of and I possess a small library on the subject.

 It is mystical nonsense like this that has done the wolf in the wild the huge disservice of not being considered for serious study until the 1940's. 

It also strikes me it is mystical nonsense like this that has done the women's movement and all that preposterous 'Women are from Venus' bullshit that has done the women's movement no good what so ever either.

General Wolf Rules for Life:

1. Eat

2. Rest

3. Rove in between

4. Render loyalty

5. Love the children

6. Cavil in moonlight

7. Tune your ears

8. Attend to the bones

9. Make love

10. Howl often

Who’s rules ARE these? Not the wolf as we shall see and if you study them you will understand. Rules for Women? Translates as; Eat, Sleep, wander about, conceive, breed, bring up your cubs, nit pick over small things at night (You said it) Listen, take out the trash, fuck and howl! Real feminist stuff there then!

Wolves III - A. Swapp 2012

More Specific Wolf Rules For Life ( second version)

1. Eat whatever you can kill - eat as often as you can, familiarise yourself with hunger because you will know it. Eat what you will, avoiding vegetables, whilst it is still alive ( it's about retaining and consuming the life force) go first to the soft body parts and viscera whilst your prey is still breathing. What ever you can't eat, stash in caches to eat later, don't worry about it rotting, when you are hungry you won't care

2. Rest as often as you can for as long as you can. Others won't like it and call you lazy, so grab every opportunity to do as little as possible

3. Try to stay put (see above) only if absolutely necessary, move to get food. This may require exertion but these days probably only if you are a wolf. There is a commonly held misconception that we are filled with the nomadic impulse in some romantic sense of wanderlust this is nonsense too. Everywhere is the same. The only reason to move and ‘rove’ is if your food runs out. 

4. Work out who is the leader, fight if necessary to decide who leads. Once the decision is made be as sycophantic as possible to your leader and his companion, curry favour with those who hold the power. 

5. Breed by all means but watch out for that psychological stuff not the Oedipal/Electra sexual stuff which largely is nonsense but there is weird head stuff; sons will steal your crown and kill you if you if they can, daughters will go off with lone wolves and forget all about you soon enough. Be grateful, for this

6. Revel (NOT cavil - which means to quibble unnecessarily over small things - NEVER do this) or dance in the moonlight. There is precious little time to dance, so do so when the mood takes you. In moonlight primarily to reduce your chances of anyone actually seeing you. Dad dancing is THE most embarrassing thing and should never be witnessed

7. This is nonsense. You cannot 'tune your ears'. If anything sing and listen, listen by all means at your disposal, this is where life's great lessons come from. Listening? Do it!

8. Bury your dead. Always. Attend to the dead and the ill, look after them and see them off ceremoniously. It's only respectful.

9. Man is not the only creature to use sexual intercourse recreationally. Enjoy it whilst you can, remembering the females are in charge, even if you think they're not. They are!  

Get it while you can

10. Howl by all means, sing and shout and scream. Make a big noise and carry a big stick,

LIFE IS SHORT AND YOU MAY AS WELL MAKE A NOISE WHILST YOU ARE HERE. No-one will remember anyway.

Wolves will tear you apart given half a chance

There is a notion that no healthy wolf has ever attacked a human.  This is patent nonsense, if they are hungry, and given the opportunity, they will kill and eat you ( see no.1) Women who Run With The Wolves will get eaten! It doesn’t release the ‘wild woman within’ it merely provides a pack animal with more prey. 

Remember they will start eating you before you are dead. 

That's how much the wolf cares about you.