Glennon Doyle, Untamed

I have been reading, memorizing, quoting and applying Glennon Doyle’s book, Untamed. It is an amazing book.

Glennon Doyle's book, Untamed, begins with a memoir in which she takes her daughter to a zoo for a cheetah run. The cheetah, Tabitha, was born in the zoo, raised with a Labrador retriever.... hence the cheetah run was really a retriever run then a cheetah run. It was quite sad. Once Tabitha is away from her handlers and the crowd, Doyle observes the changes in the cheetah. In the field, Tabitha's head becomes high; she stalks the periphery and paces. Her eyes stare at something beyond the fence. It's as if the big cat remembers her wildness. Doyle imagines a conversation with Tabitha in which she admits her dissatisfaction with her zoo life. At the end of this imagined conversation, Tabitha says “I should be grateful. I have a good enough life here. It’s crazy to long for what doesn’t even exist.” Doyle would say, “Tabitha, You Are Not Crazy, You Are A Goddamn Cheetah.”

As children, we learn to hide ourselves and become what the world expects us to be. We become caged like Tabitha.... We need to learn how to get out of these cages and be wild - free. That is where the book begins and I haven’t been able to put it down.


We all, men and women, can add to this list but what is important is not adding but removing, stepping out of these cages.