Back in 2012 I created a fictitious character named Feral Jesus (little did I know that the show Arrested Development would run with a character by the same name). Over the next six years, I used Feral Jesus as an outlet for me to process a lot of questions I had about my life, the world, and how I should live well within the world. Feral Jesus was living in a violent, destructive world but desperately seeking a way to enter into a more wild, original, innocent state. Thus the word “feral” – once domesticated but since turned wild.
I pushed the boundaries with Feral Jesus. Through him, I expressed my anger, frustrations, fears, hopes, and dreams. I used him to form a vision of what my life might look like. I applied a sharp knife of critique to everything that had formed my life – religion, the State, family, patriotism, civilization itself. As you read Feral Jesus, you’ll discover that we realized we were not living a virtuous life and needed to change our ways. The only way we saw forward was to walk, to saunter, to wander, and to listen in the silence. We were particularly interested in how Nietzsche, the Greek Cynics, the anti-civlizational critique, Emerson, and Thoreau might offer a way to inject life into a Christian morality and religion that had become stale, bitter, weak and suffocating. We decided the answer would lie close to nature, somewhere along a fence row, not too deep into wilderness, but far enough away from modernity.
Beginning in 2018, Feral Jesus and I ended our conversation. For some reason not clear to me, we parted company for a season. Lately, I’ve been looking over some of my Feral Jesus-inspired poems, essays and aphorisms. Feral Jesus and I learned a lot during those six years. Iron sharpens iron. I have rebuilt the original Feraljesus.com website, culling the old site for only writings I felt important enough to carry over to the new site. I also hope to add new musings. Some of the writings are just playful exercises in “what if,” while others I still hold to as a hope for the future. Some of the content may sound like nonsense, but maybe you’ll read something that resonates or challenges you. I hope you enjoy some of the poems, rants and laughs that Feral Jesus and I shared.
Also, in 2015 I self-published “The Rants and Writings of Feral Jesus.” It’s available on Amazon.com. If you’d like a paper copy of my conversations with Feral Jesus, you might want to purchase a copy.
Best wishes, and keep sauntering…
Feral Jesus
December 25, 2020