No, wild as in out in the bush. You're correct that normal everyday life is more wild than the wilderness, but most folks I meet think they are in "the wild" if they get twenty feet from pavement in a national park.
I live in a rural area with neighbors who come from big cities. Of course, I came from a big, high crime city too, but I was always an outdoorsman. One of these neighbors is afraid of my two Toulouse geese and another wants me to get rid of our last two remaining ducks and the two geese (which they wanted in the first place and then we took over caring for them when the neighbors realized it involved a little (very little) effort.) because they cause the Canadian geese to flock to our pond--their words, not mine. The fact that the Canadian geese come here every year to mate and raise their offspring, and we see the same pairs every year (different identifying marks on the faces), and that these geese were here for years before the domestic geese arrived escapes them! They don't want any raccoons, ducks or geese, skunks, coyotes, fox, etc., around because they defecate in their yard and the grandkids may step in it (forget about the other neighbors Labrador that drops really serious stuff!). Gee, I grew up stepping in that stuff and it included it from cows too :-), but somehow I made it all this way with no ill effects! They want to live in a rural environment sterile of any animals other than deer in the distant -- and I mean distant. If they get too close, they may eat the flowers.. The one neighbor asked me to kill the wild geese to get rid of them. I told him if he wanted them dead, he should kill them, as I enjoyed watching them. He said, and this is a quote, "I'm not a gun person and I don't like to kill things." I answer, "So what am I, the neighborhood hit man because I'm a hunter? If you want them dead, you kill them." Another neighbor put a swinging door in her garage so her cats could go out during the day. She then had fits when opossum and raccoons got in her garage and made a mess of it. She had a snake get in their too and nearly passed out. I looked at her with one eyebrow raised and asked her if she'd considered removing the door since these animals were always about at night and were very opportunistic. She subsequently had the little door blocked.
This is a bit off topic, but I think it explains why I used the term "wild" to mean wilderness.
Edited by rly45acp (08/08/08 05:53 PM)