Committed advocate of the preservation of wilderness and an explorer of both the outer and inner wilderness, Brooke Williams is constantly looking to understand and experience the value of wild places and what that means for modern humans. Born as a white male of privilege he asks the question, “How best do I spread my privilege and how can I be of most use.” In his most recent writings the answers come in the wind, in the current of the river, in the sound that a raven’s wing makes cutting through the solitude. He writes, “[T]ime spent surrounded by wildness is proportional to one’s desire to contribute to the greater good. Then the opposite may also be true: one’s propensity to focus on his or her individual wealth and stature while disregarding all other lifeforms, is inversely proportional to the time one spends in the wild world.” Here we explore wildness not for answers but for ideas, possibilities, and inspiration across the great divide in which we find ourselves as Americans.
