We little know until tried how much of the uncontrollable there is in us, urging us across glaciers and torrents, and up dangerous heights, let the judgment forbid as it may (Krakauer 145).
Travel Advice
I have not travelled far. I do not think Chris gives much travel advice besides the whole rice craze he was on. So I am about to get a little abstract, Chris' advice was to blaze your own trail. Do what makes you happy and do not live a life for or according to others. I do not know if that made him truly happy... He wrote "Happiness is only real when shared" and yet he was alone. Contrastingly his last picture he is smiling, to me, it looks like a genuine smile. So I think the advice Chris was giving was not him saying everyone go out into the Alaskan wilderness with essentially nothing of value and to be honest I do not think he was even trying to give us advice. I think he was just living his life and we all try to make it about ourselves, shocking. His advice was to do what makes you happy and surround yourself with things or people you love. I hope that through reading this, you see that these posts and this book, has given me peace of mind that this life is not guaranteed to be easy but I can make it beautiful.
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Self What ?!?
"A man who has given away a small fortune, forsaken a loving family, abandoned his car, watch, and map, and burned the last of his money before traipsing off into the wilderness" (Krakauer 71).
Dynamics Of Family
I want to preface my thoughts by a quote that keeps popping up in my head throughout this book, from the Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Euginides, "the outrageousness of a human being thinking only of herself". I think that this short fragment is relevant based on this very quote. It logically does not make sense for newly college graduate, that come from a nice family and has a small fortune to up and move into the wilderness but here we are. But to say this act seems selfish is an understatement. Although he did not have a wife, children or a strong relationship with his parents he still had a little sister, friends, step siblings and many other people he met along the way. At conception your life is not your own, not once do you ever only have to think of just yourself, some people choose to but in my humble opinion that is selfish. I know I am the girl that just called the dead guy selfish but, lets be real for a second, we both watched that Ted Talk his sister gave. That was heart breaking, was it not? Chris went into the wilderness thinking only of himself and although that is not a crime, it is not ideal. Although what I think he did was "brave" I do not think it was honorable. Running from your (family) problems is not is bravery it is cowardly.
Dynamics Of Family
I want to preface my thoughts by a quote that keeps popping up in my head throughout this book, from the Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Euginides, "the outrageousness of a human being thinking only of herself". I think that this short fragment is relevant based on this very quote. It logically does not make sense for newly college graduate, that come from a nice family and has a small fortune to up and move into the wilderness but here we are. But to say this act seems selfish is an understatement. Although he did not have a wife, children or a strong relationship with his parents he still had a little sister, friends, step siblings and many other people he met along the way. At conception your life is not your own, not once do you ever only have to think of just yourself, some people choose to but in my humble opinion that is selfish. I know I am the girl that just called the dead guy selfish but, lets be real for a second, we both watched that Ted Talk his sister gave. That was heart breaking, was it not? Chris went into the wilderness thinking only of himself and although that is not a crime, it is not ideal. Although what I think he did was "brave" I do not think it was honorable. Running from your (family) problems is not is bravery it is cowardly.
Monday, October 24, 2016
"All wisdom ends in paradox."
"They seek solitude, a chance to look within. They have rejected life and its rules, instead they seek to find rules instead of make them up, learn instead of teach. From outside these actions are confusing, pointless. You cannot redefine yourself if you are hampered by the things that define you. You have to spend time thinking about, questioning, and defining your own existence.
But there was a side to him that was a little bit dreamy, a little bit out of touch with reality" (Krakauer 81).
Inspiration or Fool?
Through reading this book (through chapter 9) I have decided that there is no such thing as communal logic. Common sense is truly as far it goes for inter-human wisdom. What makes sense to me may seem ludicrous to you and inspiration to the next person. Who am I to say that Christopher McCandeless is or is not crazy. But then again i suppose that is your very assignment. Before I heard his story I would have thought he was just very idealistic but now I can see that although that is part of it, that is not the whole picture. He was in love with thought of nature, solitude and testing societal limits and who can blame him for that? I surely cannot. Through his journey he was looking to find himself in a very drastic way to say the least, but as I am reflecting on what I have read and what I know about him, all I can hope is that he truly did find himself, and that he was happy with it. Isn't that truly what we all want? True happiness and self worth without anyone else? Just me? Well and I suppose Chris... To some this all up I think I am fifty-fifty on inspiration or Fool. Tune in Wednesday for the next installment.
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