Nobility (of character) is inherently a wild quality. It is what a wolf has that a dog doesn't. It's what makes cats so capricious and so compelling. It's why we speak of lion "prides," and see ravens in the background of our dreams. Wild animals have a sort of depth to them, a self assured serenity born of sincerity. Encounter a wolf in the wild and there's a recognition between you that goes far beyond what you see of and how you act towards each other. Meet a wolf at a zoo and that same fire is now but dim embers, stare into his eyes and you see nothing; although he still breathes, he is dead. If you're like him, you won't make note of it, but these things do their work just behind your eyes, in the background. You may feel happy or be accomplished, you may have all the food, warmth, and love in the world, but as long as you exist in a cage, you're dead just like a wolf or a lion is in a cage. Somewhere inside, you know it. Somewhere inside, no matter how good things go, you're miserable. Your brightest moments are moments of suffering. Mercifully, unlike that wolf, the cage is not made of metal, but mind, you can break out whenever you want, and the misery ends. Within you is that same wild nobility, and you've probably taken note of it. In your best moments, when you let go and do the right thing. When you're alone in the wild and all the chatter stops. When you push yourself so hard that you can't even think anymore, only do. In all those moments, you are finding within yourself your freedom, your nobility, your wildness—a depth which may be put to sleep, which may feel dead as ashes in that signature void in your chest—but which can never be lost. So find it within you again, trace your steps backwards to it, seek it in the eyes of others so they may see in you what you see in them. Learn to be free, like the wilderness we've been asphyxiating for so long. Only then will your misery end. No longer will you feel decrepit in the face of all the comfort in your life; rather you will feel peace in the face of whatever threatens to drown you. That is the only thing I will ever teach. The first thing you must rewild is yourself.