Dirty just finished reading my copy of Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. I think Mr. Krakauer is a great writer and like how he references other situations to help convey the meaning of whatever situation he's writing about. When I read Into The Wild I was struck by how this young guy understood so deeply how unconnected we as society are with each other and with the Earth.
Daily I have thoughts of how much crap we have collected and give our kids. I think about how most, if not all, of it is really unnecessary. I imagine daily what it would be like to cast off all the material garbage that society says we need and move out into the country living off the land with just with what we need to live. Some of my more girly sensibilities usually stop me short, but do I really need all of the comforts that I have? Where would we be as a society if we didn't have computers in every home, multiple tvs with satellite, all of the video games, the mounds of toys, and all the extra food that we as Americans consume because our culture says that more is best and a sign of success.
I admired, in a sense, that Chris McCandless had the boldness and the conviction to get out there and discard all the extra stuff. I understood on some level why he went into Alaska with supplies he bought at a Kmart and didn't take a map or extra provisions. Would I have the bollocks to do that myself? Heck no...but I understand his reasoning. He wanted to be off the grid. He wanted to go someplace uncharted, but how can you do that when everything has already been mapped? You don't take a map! It's really bugging me that Dirty only sees the practical side of the situation (Why would you go into Alaska with supplies you bought at Kmart? Why wouldn't you take more food than that?) and he doesn't seem to understand, or give any gravity to, the spiritual aspect of it. He just says that the story is no good because the guy was stupid for doing what he did. Yes, I would agree that it was eccentric. I also think that it was a journey of a soul to make sense of our society and to know that the Earth is really all any human needs to survive. If only he hadn't been taken down by starvation causing bacteria he would have made it.
How can you read it and not see the spiritual journey the guy was taking? I've written this blog waiting for some of the movie to download because it's linked by youku.com and that site usually lags some time into whatever you're watching.
1 comment:
I would have to say that I agree with both of you. The premise of what he did is bold and certainly a testiment to what he believed - but - because he had aquired this knowledge I think he would have better served the world by doing things that would help to enlighten other (starting with his parents) rather then waste it trying to smoke and jerky a moose and killing himself of starvation.
The basic premise of what you are talking about though is why I would like to adopt more kids from the foster system. We have so much space and stuff that we should touch more lives.
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