Open this book to the Contents page. Spend time enjoying essay headings like

I am waist deep in blaming, and I am still shoveling to free myself.

The Earth is lush with the beautiful flowers of apparent injustice.

Take hatred, Theo. Sit down with this unwanted child, and hear it out.

Thanks over and over for my ignorance.

We are walking boxes stuffed with gifts. We bow to each other, congratulating how impeccably we are wrapped.

Blessings for the misunderstandings

Goodness is each man's personal jigsaw puzzle.

As the publisher advertises, Thinking Wild is indeed "A tapestry of metaphors, thoughts, ideas.... over 100 short 'try-me-outs.'" Grutter explains:

I have spent maybe five thousand days and nights alone on the ocean, fishing. This helps me to leap out of my society's 'orderly' scene. This solitude has become my drug of choice. We lead a simple life that has been sweeter to us than I was told to expect.

I have had a car in my name for only three months of my life. And don't fear for a minute that I talk here of whining sacrifice, of being married to only a bicycle. It's just that this is the best bargain from life I could figure out.

And what plate of yummy food did you serve your imagination today? Did you laugh off the terror of the strange and take your mind on a safari? Or did you bore your mind just to figure out the cheapest fare to not- much-where?

A number of selections deal with religion; challenging conventional worshipers.

Many people expect their organized religion to be for their minds what the Cadillac is for their bodes—a vehicle of comfort. No climbing over logs anymore. No confusion. No lying. No risk of getting lost. No driving on either side of the road. Their souls become proud inmates of a fine road system carved into their psychic wild land. Others see in their religion a great cruise ship, beautifully furnished with all taken care of to comfort indoor-minds. These people like to devote themselves to one sacred book. They like to have a formula classifying everything—no doubts, no wondering, no growing pains, no creative fevers, no driving on the ‘wrong’ side, and no weed thoughts for them.