Thoughts about Into the Wild by Jon Krakuer

In a recent podcast by Davis Aurini and Matt Forney, I heard Davis mention that the male is the more romantic of the two sexes while the female is the more practical. He mentioned that a man wants to go live off the land with his gun and his dog while a woman dreams of getting that nice house in the suburbs next to a good school district.

I don't know how to measure levels of romantic-ness, however I can admit I've had dreams of just blasting myself into space without any real concerns of coming back. Ok, I wouldn't really do that, but I've had the interest of just wandering around America and hitch hike to different campsites all over the place. I think Matt Forney wrote a book about doing that sort of thing.

I thought about the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakuer. I had only read it once back in college and it is kind of a sad read. It is based off of a true story where Christopher McCandless adventured all over America, made it to Alaska, and died by eating poisonous potato plants. While the end of his story was tragic, I admire the spirit he had and his desire to experience life.

Christopher was a very successful kid. He got good grades and he graduated from Emory University. I guess he got sick of it all and didn't want to live his life by the expectations that others set for him. Get married, have 2 children, buy an expensive house, and have to slave away 40 plus years in some boring office job while taking a 2 week vacation each year.

Instead of doing any of that, he gives away all his money, abandons his car, and cuts off all ties with everyone he knew from his previous life. In this sense, I guess he was a purist of living off of the land. He was a survivalist. Had I been in his shoes, I wouldn't have gone that route (at least not that far). I'd keep the cash in case things went horribly wrong. Maybe Chris had something to prove. Maybe he destroyed the last of his cash so he knew that all of his results were by his own hand. He even went as far as rejecting donations and gifts from the people he met along his journey.

His death in Alaska makes the point that taking your life into your own hands means that you accept all the responsibility and risks that come with it. If you choose to take the risk of enjoying your life to the fullest capability, these things can happen if you put yourself in crazy situations be it trying to survive in Alaska in a tent or trying to jump over the Great Wall of China on a motorcycle. I think about a quote from Samurai Champloo.

There are two kinds of dogs in the world. There is the lap dog that is held on a short leash and gets one meal a day. Then there is the stray dog that roams about freely never knowing where his next meal is coming from.

Live a life of security and boredom or live a life of danger and excitement. Of course, there are all sorts of degrees in between. I kind of wonder if this is the reason that more and more men have just been dropping out of the labor force since 2000. I'll probably bump into a few of them as I make my way out to Nevada in a few years.