Over the weekend we watched a movie called 'Into the wild'. It's the true story about Christopher McCandless, a young man in his early twenties, who rebels against his upper middle class family, society's values and demands, and goes off to do his own thing. He donates $24,000 of his life savings to Oxfam, and lives on next to nothing, finding bits of work when he runs out of money. He travels around for two years taking on the nickname Alexander Supertramp, finally ending up in Alaska, where it was always his dream to live in solitude off the land for a few months. He arrives there in April and wanders off into the wilderness with 10 pounds of rice, a .22 rifle, and a load of books including a guide to the region's edible plants. He crosses a stream and finds an old bus where he makes his basecamp. For about three months he manages to catch small animals and lives off these as well as berries and roots. At one stage he kills a moose, but as he is neither skilled in butchering nor smoking, the meat spoils and he ends up with nothing. By the time he's worked whatever it was out of his system, he backtracks to the road only to find that the river, which was a mere stream at the end of winter, has swollen with all the glacial meltwater and he can't cross it, so he is trapped. He goes back to the bus, where eventually he starves to death. His body was found a few weeks after his death in his sleeping bag, weighing only 30 kg.
If he had had a map of the area, he would have found that only 1/4 of a mile from where he tried to cross the river there was a hand operated tram where he could have pulled himself across, or he could have gone to a nearby trail and walked out in about 2 days, which he would have been capable of at that point. Local people have pointed out that unless you're totally unaware of the land, it's nearly impossible to starve to death during Summer.
So, there seem to be two opinions about this young man. One is that he is some kind of hero, living out his dreams and meeting with an unfortunate ending. The other is from people who are more adept at surviving in the wilderness and local Alaskans, who find him an intolerable fool, who got himself killed for no reason at all.
I mostly find the story just tragic. Part of me finds him incredibly stupid (but haven't we all done incredibly stupid things in our twenties, although without losing our lives), and part of me finds him admirable for doing his own thing. Mostly I just find it so tragic that he died the way he did, for no reason at all (unless he did have a serious death wish and then I wonder why he didn't shoot himself in the head with his .22 rather than suffer the pain of slowly starving to death). He would have been able to have the same experience but not lose his life if only he had even had a map of the area. And why didn't he scout the area he was living in for over two months, or why didn't he follow the river when he found he couldn't cross it... Those to me are basic survival skills, or it's even just plain common sense. But anyway. There is one photo of him where he holds up his final goodbye note and waves to the camera. He looks super thin, and must have known by then that it was going to be the end of him. He doesn't look sad, angry or worried, just resigned, but at peace with himself and the world.
If he had had a map of the area, he would have found that only 1/4 of a mile from where he tried to cross the river there was a hand operated tram where he could have pulled himself across, or he could have gone to a nearby trail and walked out in about 2 days, which he would have been capable of at that point. Local people have pointed out that unless you're totally unaware of the land, it's nearly impossible to starve to death during Summer.
So, there seem to be two opinions about this young man. One is that he is some kind of hero, living out his dreams and meeting with an unfortunate ending. The other is from people who are more adept at surviving in the wilderness and local Alaskans, who find him an intolerable fool, who got himself killed for no reason at all.
I mostly find the story just tragic. Part of me finds him incredibly stupid (but haven't we all done incredibly stupid things in our twenties, although without losing our lives), and part of me finds him admirable for doing his own thing. Mostly I just find it so tragic that he died the way he did, for no reason at all (unless he did have a serious death wish and then I wonder why he didn't shoot himself in the head with his .22 rather than suffer the pain of slowly starving to death). He would have been able to have the same experience but not lose his life if only he had even had a map of the area. And why didn't he scout the area he was living in for over two months, or why didn't he follow the river when he found he couldn't cross it... Those to me are basic survival skills, or it's even just plain common sense. But anyway. There is one photo of him where he holds up his final goodbye note and waves to the camera. He looks super thin, and must have known by then that it was going to be the end of him. He doesn't look sad, angry or worried, just resigned, but at peace with himself and the world.
(found on http://www.thequietman.org/?p=186)
The note says: "I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!"
Ignoring the God references (we all have to have our flaws :P), I can understand that feeling as well - the last time we went trekking in Peru, I had acute altitude sickness and nearly lost my life on top of a mountain. I had resigned myself to the fact that I probably would not see the morning. I didn't feel worried or even sad though, I felt happy I was somewhere doing something I loved (and not sitting at work behind a computer) and I felt that if I were to die at that moment, I was content that I had achieved what I had, and that I had lived my life to the full.
As it happened, PJ packed our bags and although it was really hard, we walked off the mountain in the middle of the night, to a safer altitude where I slowly got back to normal.
Here is the ironic thing. From going to an acceptance to die, I straightaway went to making plans for the future when it appeared I was going to stay around for a bit longer. So, at about 5am that morning, I promised myself I was going to learn Jazz, something I had wanted to do for ages, as I now had a bit more time. And I did.
However, I'm not even sure if this experience profoundly changed me or not, like some people say a near death experience does. Life just seems to go on, new experiences override old ones until they become a distant memory of something that happened long ago. I suppose I try and live my life to the full, I try and not put off until tomorrow what I could do today. I try and listen more to my gut feelings and am slightly more accepting that things can change in an instant and that you may never have as long as you think, or would like.
How does all of this relate to our current circumstances? Well, I suppose that this young man was troubled as much as I am about the way we live our lives, and how we have lost what is, or perhaps should be, important to us as a human race. Like him, we have also left the rat race behind and re-evaluated what is important to us, regardless of what society thinks of what we're doing. Although not as extreme as he, we also try to 'live more off the land', and live a simpler lifestyle, trying to be as self sufficient as we can be.
He meets up with 'modern' hippies who are still caravanning around, congregating at spots around the US. I suppose with all the foreclosures and job losses you'll see more of that happening too.
Anyway... watch the movie and see what you think. If nothing else, it shows beautiful landscape shots of America, which has been truthful to the locations he really visited.
Adios,
As it happened, PJ packed our bags and although it was really hard, we walked off the mountain in the middle of the night, to a safer altitude where I slowly got back to normal.
Here is the ironic thing. From going to an acceptance to die, I straightaway went to making plans for the future when it appeared I was going to stay around for a bit longer. So, at about 5am that morning, I promised myself I was going to learn Jazz, something I had wanted to do for ages, as I now had a bit more time. And I did.
However, I'm not even sure if this experience profoundly changed me or not, like some people say a near death experience does. Life just seems to go on, new experiences override old ones until they become a distant memory of something that happened long ago. I suppose I try and live my life to the full, I try and not put off until tomorrow what I could do today. I try and listen more to my gut feelings and am slightly more accepting that things can change in an instant and that you may never have as long as you think, or would like.
How does all of this relate to our current circumstances? Well, I suppose that this young man was troubled as much as I am about the way we live our lives, and how we have lost what is, or perhaps should be, important to us as a human race. Like him, we have also left the rat race behind and re-evaluated what is important to us, regardless of what society thinks of what we're doing. Although not as extreme as he, we also try to 'live more off the land', and live a simpler lifestyle, trying to be as self sufficient as we can be.
He meets up with 'modern' hippies who are still caravanning around, congregating at spots around the US. I suppose with all the foreclosures and job losses you'll see more of that happening too.
Anyway... watch the movie and see what you think. If nothing else, it shows beautiful landscape shots of America, which has been truthful to the locations he really visited.
Adios,
