Wet 'n' Wild

What is wet? I've near forgotten what it's like to be soaked, since I haven't experienced rain in so long and I don't go swimming every day as when I was a boy. The rivers here have sunk deep again into their soft chalky beds and disappeared; the area lakes evaporated by the end of July. Why, I've aroused myself out of sound sleep several mornings just to witness the cycles of my sprinkler system. With wonder and awe, I watched their tiny spurts and spray, as I would a magnificent dancing fountain...I want to get wet!

I was only "wild" that one time I remember wandering around in the Chihuahuan Desert of Big Bend. I never knew wild until then--alone amid sotol and cacti, immersed in primeval environment and thoughts. Wildness works its effect on the emotions: transforming what's sound and sane reactions into apparent craziness...confidence becoming suddenly a sense of insecurity...attempting to connect with the true nature of one's existence now, where once things were wilder.