There's a wolf sanctuary in Lunerne Valley that's not like other sanctuaries.  Yes they rescue wolves from illegal breeders, bad owners, ect, but they do something with their wolves few if any others would dare do.  They let you go into enclosures and actually pet the wolves!  Yes, I'm talking about Wolf Mountain Sanctuary, the place I talk about here.  Alternately, I heard of a zoo somewhere near Buenos Aires, Argentina where you can get just as up close and personal with lions, tigers, and bears (Oh my!  lol, sorry.)

Now many would think these places are nuts.  "Letting the general public get that close to wild animals?  They're just inviting an incident!"  Normally I'd even agree.  But, at least in the case of Wolf Mountain, they have yet to have such an incident.

"Well they've just been lucky."

Having been there, I say quite the contrary.  You see, they can do this because they know exactly what they're dealing with, and how to handle it.   Tonya Littlewolf, the owner of Wolf Mountain, understands her wolves and is always watching.  She knows what to look for, and when the wolves are restless or uneasy, she clears the enclosure.  That isn't luck.  That's experience.

As I was reading about this other zoo in Buenos Aires, I got to thinking how things so drastically dangerous are rendered far safer when you know what you're doing and respect that with which you're working.  For example, think about this: Mythbusters on the Discovery channel once did a piece on coal walking.  You know, the art of walking barefoot on hot coals.  Those who were trained, even minimally, were able to do it without a problem.  Those that weren't, got three steps before being burned.  The difference?  Training and experience.  The dangerous is made safer when you understand the risk and know how to handle it.

"You can't make the dangerous safe just by training."

Mostly true.  I'll explain why in a sec.  But first I'll agree with the core of that.  You can't make fire-fighting safe no matter how well trained you are.  Then again, if two people were given the same gear, and told to fight a fire, and only one was trained, had badly injured would that untrained person get?  The dangerous can be made safe-ER when you understand what you're doing and what you're dealing with.

That said, I'm going to show you how the dangerous can be made safe with training.  At my job, I could very easily;

Start a large grease fire,
Cause severe chemical burns to myself or others,
Suffocate myself or a co-worker,
Blind myself or a co-worker,
Infect others with minor to moderate food poisoning.

....................... I think the NSA just added me to their watch list.

Ahem, anyway, I bet you're wondering where I work that I can do all that.  What if I told you I work at a movie theater?  That's right.  Without the basic training I got from my early days, I very definitely could do all that by accident.  That grease fire is as simple as putting oil in a hot kettle without popcorn seed in it.  There are a lot of cleaning chemicals I work with that are hazardous, including one that would do a fair amount of damage just by getting onto my skin.  As for the food poisoning, this is why I have to get a food card every two years to prove I know how to avoid that.  It's called the health code, and if I didn't know it, I'd be serving people under-cooked hot-dogs laced with whatever bacteria I carried with me.  Not good.

So in that way, the dangerous can be made safe.  Toss someone into my job with no training at all, and you'd probably have a kettle fire inside of an hour.  They may panic, try to use water to put it out, next thing you know, our theater is on the 11 o'clock news after it's been reduced to ashes.

Now making popcorn is A LOT different than making sure rescued wolves don't bite visitors.  For one thing, I don't think the wolves would care to have canola oil and seasoning salt in their fur.  But even with the wolves, because the owner understands them, and knows how to handle them and those that come to visit, she has yet to have a single incident.  I'd be willing to bet she never does, unless a visitor ignores what she tells them.  Then that's on them for not listening to instructions.

I bet you all have training in something that, if someone who knew nothing about it tried it, would hurt themselves or others.  For one thing, there's driving.  If we hadn't learned how, we'd be pretty dangerous on the road.  So what things do you know that, without training, would be disastrous if tried?  It's been a while since I heard from my faithful followers.  I bet some of you could surprise me with a job that seams idiot proof, but would probably get that "idiot" hurt or killed if he didn't have the same training you do.

I've been working on various story drafts for a while now.  Some I'd like to forget.  Others are tucked away for future use now that a writing cue has developed.  One is on the path to publication, and another is preparing for its turn on the cue.

In short, I've been writing stories (and a few poems) since the events of 9/11.  I've learned a lot over the years, enough to begin advising people newer to the journey than I am.  Now I too still have much to learn, but I know enough to confidently offer advice and insight to those taking that first step.

The best part, is they have this way of teaching me too.  For example, there's one person who I've been trading messages with.  She's young in the craft, so young she doesn't see the signs within her that she's got a good shot at being a good writer.  Stories taking over, ideas popping up without effort, that sort of thing.  I've been offering advice, or finding those who can when we hit areas I don't know about yet.

In one message, she asked me the following:
"At what point did you feel you were an author, and could legitimately say you were one and make a Facebook page and website? Was it after you actually wrote the book or when you were writing it?"

Uhmmmm.... That's a good question.  The Facebook and website parts are easy.  Once I knew this was what I was going to do, I knew I had to get those things to do it well.  Beyond that though, when did it happen?  At what point did I start calling myself an author?

In truth I don't.  I subscribe to the idea that an "author" is a writer who's work has been published.  It's why I always say I'm a fiction writer.  I mean let's face it, all I have are some ideas that sound good and read good to me, but have yet to make it onto shelves to be read by others.  I don't feel like a full fledged author yet.  I'm... to use a sport metaphor, I'm a prospect yet to be drafted by anyone.  I want to play in the NFL, but I'm not there yet.

Of course it looks like I'm going to go undrafted (AKA, self-published), but that doesn't mean I won't still do well.

So will publication make me feel like an author?  I'd like to think so.  Maybe when I hold that first book in my hands I will.  Yet, going back a bit, when did I start calling my self a writer of any kind?  The first poem the day after 9/11?  The documentary that I'd rather forget.  The sci-fi whose world was born a few days after, but after I've grown and learned, I realize still needs work?  When was the day I woke up and knew, "I'm a writer, someday to be an author"?

I've looked back hard trying to figure it out.  Truth is, there may have been a day, I just can't remember it.  Still, it's an interesting question.  When do we know who we are?  When did I know writing was going to be my life?  What's the criteria to meet so that you can go from somebody just tossing words together, to an aspiring writer?

I'll let you know if I ever find out.