Late last night before we fell asleep, Hubby and I began watching a movie called Into the Wild. Have any of you seen it? If you haven't, I highly recommend it. We stayed up and finished the entire movie and I have been thinking about it all day. It's about a guy who just graduated from college in the early 90s. He is sick of living in such a materialistic world, so he burns his social security card, burns his money and decides to live the life of a wanderer. He doesn't tell his family goodbye - they didn't even know he was gone for months. Did I mention this is a true story? So this man (his name is Chris) abandons his former life and begins hitching rides up the west coast. He rafts the grand canyon, kayaks all the way down to Mexico, finds work on a farm, catches rides with gypsies and just lives. Eventually he makes his way to Alaska with just the clothes on his back and a few supplies. He subsists on berries and plants and lives in complete solitude. He crosses a stream to find an abandoned bus in the middle of the wilderness, and he lives out of the bus for months. He begins having trouble finding food and tries to make his way back across the stream, only to find it has turned into a violent torrent. He is trapped by nature. Starving and weak, he dies a slow, painful death.
For the two years he was gone he kept a journal, and one of the last things he wrote in his journal before he died was "happiness only real when shared".
This is the last picture ever taken of Chris - a self-portrait found undeveloped on his camera.
It got me thinking: what would it be like to abandon everything and live a natural life where my only worries were what I would eat and where I would sleep? I can definitely understand how he saw this lifestyle as an "adventure"...and I find it bittersweet that in the end he realizes happiness stems from the joy of human relationships.
There are so many adventures that I would love to have before I die...but would I ever undertake one at the expense of losing my family? No, I don't think I would...because my greatest joy in life is my family.
Just musing about what's been on my mind all day. It even made it hard to concentrate at work...so I had to take a minute to jot it down.
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