"He Was On Fire Now, And He Was Howling"

A red wolf named Mumon, kept in captivity and living a life of orderly routine with the rest of his pack, is released back in to the wild. As the rest of the pack begins to live in fear, with their lack of survival instincts and true will to live, Mumon feels lacking of something, his howl. Refusing to live in fear and empty hope of returning to his life of captivity, Mumon sets out to find his howl. On his journey, Mumon encounters a deer that he immediately pursues. The deer asks Mumon before it is killed, how he knew to hunt, for the deer was far greater in size. Mumon states “I did not think. I simply know such things. I cannot say why.” After he spilled the deer’s blood he feels a certain shame. Mumon then encounters a raven, picking at the bones of the carcass that explains that he must not feel shame for doing what he needed to push forward. He then feels the energy of the deer within him and begins to run. After weeks without ceasing, he feels all the years of captivity begin to fall away. Mumon then encounters a farmer with a rifle, and without thinking engulfs the shell, falling down dead. He continues to fall deep in to the fires of the Earth, filled with chanting and drums. Mumon then embraces the fire, and begins to howl.

            By the end of the story Mumon has literally caught on fire, and has finaly began to howl. Flaum uses this story as a metaphor for the extremely difficult path all of us are on, to find who we truly are. Having to eventually “pass through fire,” or “die” to really reach that pinnacle. Flaum expresses that we cannot just hope for the best while we dodge around challenges in front of us, but to face them, and learn from them, even if they hurt like shit.  A person will only know their true potential once they’ve stared failure in the face.

A brief audio commentary is provided by clicking on the post title.