A Prayer for the Wild At Heart

Posted by Censor Librorum on Jan 24, 2007 | Categories: Lesbian in a Catholic Sort of Way

“A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages” is inked on the inner left arm of actress Angelina Jolie. It is a phrase I adore. When I feel trapped by people, events, illness, New York buildings, or just plain bad luck; I utter it as my mantra. In Latin it translates as “Preces pro fera illa parte quae in nostro latet corde ut in claustro.”

The quote is taken from the Tennessee Williams play, “Stairs to the Roof.” The play has its roots in a nervous breakdown Williams suffered arising from his experiences in working in the mid-1930s in the relentlessly mechanical world of a shoe factory in St. Louis, Missouri.

So what does it mean? Well, in the actress’ own words – “I don’t think I know one person who I think can be completely who they are, every second of the day, who feels completely free…Nobody’s completely free, it’s a prayer for kind of everybody who’s got that little thing, that wild thing and they’re wild at heart. And they just can’t let it out, or get what they want and they’re not comfortable to be who they want to be.”

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