SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Each week, a guest draws a card from NPR's Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. Terry Tempest Williams often writes about what is easy to overlook. She calls it the holy ordinary.
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TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS: If we are living a life of our senses, then that demands that we be present, and if we're present, we will know how to act. We will know how to respond to the holy ordinary around us.
DETROW: Williams has a new book out called "The Glorians." She spoke with Wild Card host Rachel Martin about what it means to be a woman with a big voice and big ideas in our culture.
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RACHEL MARTIN: What's something you still feel you need to prove to people you meet?
WILLIAMS: I mean, on one hand, I don't think I have to prove anything at this age. But I'll tell you what's in my mind, which is sort of sad.
MARTIN: Tell me.
WILLIAMS: What comes into my mind, if I'm honest, the minute you asked that question, is that I'm not crazy. Because I think when you live on the edge and when you see things and feel things and are as porous as I believe we all are, I'm just aware of my own porosity. I think people think you're crazy. And I think as women...
MARTIN: Yeah, yeah.
WILLIAMS: ...Who have certain powers - we all have powers. And I think we all tamp them down so that we're not too big. We're not too much. We're not too smart. We're not too sensitive. So I think just being a woman in a misogynist culture, I think - I don't know if we have to prove we're not crazy, but we're always being asked if we are...
MARTIN: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: ...Or treated as if we are. So that's the honest answer.
MARTIN: I mean...
WILLIAMS: It's not about proving, but it's understanding that the people just say, well, it's her. It's Terry. She's having a vision again, or she's had some peak experience or a mystical experience. It's not anything special. It's just if we pay attention, if we are in love with the world, if we recognize the power of an aunt or horny toads, horned lizards that can squirt blood from their eyes as don't mess with me...
MARTIN: Right.
WILLIAMS: We're not crazy. We're just alive. So I think maybe maybe it's proving to people we are alive. We feel things. We can tell the truth, and we can ask questions. And it makes you unemployable.
MARTIN: Unemployable.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
DETROW: Terry Tempest Williams' latest book, "The Glorians," is out now. You can watch that full conversation with Williams on YouTube by searching for NPR Wild Card. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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