So, I watched the film, "Into The Wild" last night. I've been meaning to watch this one for a long time because I've heard good things about it. It's the true story of Christopher McCandless who booked out of his life after graduating from Emery College in protest of his over-materialistic parents and their volatile relationship. He's convinced there is a better way to live, taking advantage of what's provided naturally and through the kindness of strangers. His ultimate goal is to live in the wilderness of Alaska on his own. His parents and sister are left with little insight into his motives and with the worry of what the heck happened to him. He sends his trust fund to Oxfam with a note telling them to feed someone with the money.
On his journey, he meets interesting and kind people who help him learn new lessons and give him work so he could have a few bucks on him. In the film, he usually ends up teaching them something too. He is full of altruistic beliefs and seem brave and good and helpful and a positive reaction to what's wrong in the world. I can see why this story appealed to Sean Penn who directed it. He is someone who is also full of the same beliefs from what I've read about him. Actually, it's a good story, and I was enjoying it, up until he got to Los Angeles. This is where I got mad.
While in LA he ends up on Skid Row, attempting to get into a shelter. He's among the poorest of the poor that the US has to offer. People down on their luck for so many reasons - lack of work, mental illness, alcohol and drug addiction. He meets a kind shelter worker who is willing to help him out but the circumstances of what he's seeing is too depressing for him and he chooses to move on. I'm sure the point was that this is what happens in a society that thinks so little of the people living in it. I'm sure that the point is well taken. But what got to me was the idea that this intelligent young man who's entire life was a gesture railing against this society could not see the need for his altruistic ideals right there where he was. Instead, he moved on to live in Alaska, which ultimately was his demise. Once there, he miscalculated his need for supplies and could not get back to get what he needed - in this case food. He had studied edible wild plants but, in the end, ate something poisonous which weakened him further and eventually, according to the film, he laid down to see his vast sky and starved to death.
There is much romance espoused when people talk Christopher McCandless and his journey. Most people think his way is THE way to live though they wouldn't do it themselves. What rankles me about this message is the feeling I felt when he was no able to deal with Skid Row. You see, I too have altruistic beliefs. But one of them is this, belief without action is meaningless. And another is, action without meaning is futile. I would have been much more impressed with McCandless' journey if he had stopped at Skid Row and chose to make a difference.
The last line he supposedly wrote was "Happiness is best when shared."
Everything is best when shared. And as someone who works every day with the poorest of the poor I can honestly say that, while I can glory in the awe of a rainbow or the scent of a perfect summer's day, l can only make a difference if I share my talents. Perhaps Christopher McCandless' starvation was not just physical but spiritual as well. At the end of the movie, what I saw was a life without truth even though that's all he was hoping to find in the wild.
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