The details of Chris’s life and the ways in which it has been told really were not things I was setting out to draw attention to and I certainly would not want to get into a debate over every little detail, as obviously many of the facts are truly unknown and hypothetical (how could one say that he never sustained a suspected injury or ingested something that was poison which may have worked their way out of his system from an autopsy perspective as he became more and more debilitated from malnourishment?)

The thing that saddens me though now that opinions have been voiced, is how there seems to be divide with the perception of him and the mission he set out to complete. One side tries to see him as a brave and adventurous truth seeker who abandoned conventional logic and boldly traveled thousands of miles with next to nothing in terms of provisions in the search of answers to questions that a formal education could not teach – the other camp seems to fault him for this lack of abiding by the very rules he set out to escape and then subsequently dismisses the ideals behind his quest because of that fact.

Granted the kid set out without an “acceptable” plan, but that was the point… not having an overly thought out plan WAS the plan… believing he could exist more happily alone, without blindly obeying the “rules” of what he labeled as our society.

In the movie toward the very end Chris’s character comes to the realization that even though being alone is and was not the answer, the very companionship he had been dismissing was necessary to his happiness and now that he realized this, there were no companions to be had; not only for happiness but also for survival… his new knowledge may have come at a time and with a price where it was too late – being mentally ready to move on but also being in physical circumstances which led him to this wisdom that were quite possibly going to prevent him from ever doing so.

Here is where it comes full-circle; our Mighty Editress posted feelings of being lonely, recognizing she has in the past, been attracted to being alone. Now for the twist! She is not in Alaska, she is not in debilitating circumstances… Jennifer is in a position now to take that knowledge of companionship Chris’s character never got the chance to live in a direction that I expect will bring her a newfound happiness! That’s where I was trying to go with my reference to that story.

I hope this makes some more sense?

P.S. Bob- I did send and resend an email from my hotmail account I verified made it to my sent items to your yahoo address, maybe it got identified as spam on your end?

A.S.

Oh…and about the “Superboy-whatever-he-named-himself” who did the Alaska death trip? Sean Penn glorified the boy…of course. Sells movies.

The book’s author also somewhat romantisized him
…he had good “intentions” but they killed him. He also had no plan…anyone who goes camping (ANYWHERE) has, or should have, a plan. And the movie omitted that he had a map (yes, it was found), also his wallet and ID, voting card, etc. were in his backpack,& he still had $300 in it, but apparently he just left his trust fund untouched …a lot of “movie-discrepancies”, of course.

AND he did NOT die of potato-seed poisoning…no toxins found. Hollywood stuff. He starved to death with a fish-filled river mere yards away (he even had a damn fishing pole!)AND a 600# Moose he had no clue how to preserve? Jeez!
Sad…but true. Just scary dumb/unprepared.

Have to agree with Bob….rough wildernesses will separate the weak from the survivors…Darwinism at its finest.
He was likeable, sweet, and very ignorant. And I do NOT think he wanted to die…but his death/story did have an enormous impact on folks so…so maybe all was not lost? Next soul-searcher that takes on a wild wilderness adventure to find their true self..they might plan it better?

Bob

I kept the second one because I liked being called the Mighty Editress. ; )

I listened to Into the Wild audio book on my road trip home from Michigan last summer. I enjoyed it! (And I always enjoy your discussions in the comments sections…)

Thanks!

Jennifer

I had sent you an email shortly after my post so that we could talk about this off topic subject away from Jennifer’s blog as you offered.

I also believe that asking permission first is something which reflects a higher degree of manners when compared to a blind act that would require forgiveness…

It might be a better option to reply to what I sent to you personally rather than re-editing and adding to a post which I and most likely others here have already read.

A.S.

I love that you blog. I love reading whats going on with you! I am so glad that you are ready to get back out there and explore coming out of your house more. We need some all night talks like we used to do!

Congrats on the 2 months of being sober. I also wanted to suggest that when you have someone coming to see your house…make some cookies right before they come. It makes the house smell good and then leave them on the counter for them to eat. I would buy those breakoff cookies at the store that you just put in the oven and make about 6. People love it!

Love ya,
TRACY

It’s great to hear that you feel like eating again.

AS: This is a comment space, not the blog itself, so I guess the only limit on discussion lies in the hands of the Mighty Editress Herself. Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, I say. So here goes:

I get the impression now that you think Chris McCandless was some sort of hero? I’m going out on a limb here. It’s hard to tell.

Maybe that’s the difference between watching a movie and reading a book. Movies romanticize everything. I mean, you can’t just say: “Here’s was a kid with a head full of mush, and it killed him”. Who would go see that?

Consider: In the space of a year, he cut himself off from everyone that ever cared about him. He gave away $24,000, and burned up his wallet and ID in a campfire. Then he wandered off into “wild Alaska” with no plan and no clue. Unless you call 10 pounds of rice and a .22 rifle a plan. “Wild Alaska” was unimpressed, didn’t figure it owed him a living, and promptly killed him.

He starved to death. His body weighed 67 lb. when neighbors found him. He had holed up in the back of an abandoned van in the final months, only a few miles from help. Is this heroic? Or is it just dumb?

What he attempted to do has been accomplished many times by people who make some attempt to prepare. My dad’s cousin Lewis Giddings did something similar back in the 1930s, when Alaska really WAS a wilderness, and didn’t just play one on TV.

Lewis was still in his teens, going to college. One fall semester, he had a bush pilot drop him off in the middle of Nowhere, AK, with a thousand pounds or so of carefully chosen tools and supplies. He made a shelter and survived the winter. After spring breakup he cut down trees, made a raft, and floated back down to somewhere you could call civilization.

But Lewis studied up first. He had a detailed plan. For months, he talked to anyone he could find who knew anything about the backcountry. He even wrote a bunch of letters home saying everything was okay, and had a friend periodically mail them to his parents. He didn’t want them to worry.

He could have died. But not because he didn’t try to think things out. Not because he didn’t have a plan.

In his 60s Lewis was killed by a drunk driver who ran a red light in Providence, Rhode Island. You can’t plan for that. But you can at least plan against starving to death.

So what do I think about Chris McCandless? Well, all I can say is, death is a tragedy. But sometimes it is also a farce.

Bob

Although we are spoiling a bit of the plot here for those who have not seen the movie or read the book… I see an optimistic side to this tragedy, where an intelligent young man with a bright future ahead of him recognized a growing and overwhelming sense of rebellion in him. This rebel with a cause set out like the pioneers, who discovered and established this great country of ours, to get to the bottom of that inner sense of turmoil. Only his was a mental journey rather than a trek across unknown oceans and countrysides; to gain a better self understanding behind the rationales of many things, one being why furthering his education was just as if not more expensive than the $24,000 he choose to give away so that it could feed thousands of starving people.

I’ll reply to your personal email Bob so we can continue this discussion offline.

For those who are still interested, the book and movie have both been named if you’d like to come to your own conclusions

I shall continue to follow.

We will meet in real life, I guarantee that, whether you come to me or we meet in between.

Part of your travels is learning and growing. Learning about who you want to become. Growing into the person you want to be.

We all spend our life changing, some people change for the good, some not.
I think your change is good.

Keep blogging!!!!

Hugs

Bob-

I get the sense you have some strong feelings about the life of Chris McCandless? It also appears that you may be revealing a bit of a tendency to be pessimistic?

One of Chris’s favorite authors Jack London wrote that he would rather be ashes than dust. Life can be many things for many different people… some burn out quickly, others last to the bitter end while most of us fall somewhere in between. Just because the life of another differs from what you do and what you may believe in at the moment does not make them stupid or their stories more or less significant than someone else’s…

A.S.

I’m sure that I’m not the only one that has noticed you growing stronger, in spite of revealing very personal stuff.

I started reading your blog because you can write, and I return each day to see your progress and growth and somehow, a beautiful lady, in heels, working or cars, doing oil changes, just seems unreal.

By the way, most guys cannot read that schematic, and can’t trouble shoot electrical problems.
James