Wild

The order of my updates has gone haywire. Sorry. I'm torn between keeping chronology and posting when I have something important to say. Keep checking back about 3-4 posts now and again to catch anything that might have been updated or edited since you read.

I just watched the movie Into the Wild.
In the main stretch of “town” on the island, there is an open-air restaurant (you're hard pressed to find one that's not) that instead of chair and tables has rows of bean bag chairs and simply done away with tables altogether. Their big draw is that they have the island's only “theater” consisting of a respectable sound system made up of several large amplifiers and a portable projector that could fit in my backpack. They play two movies every night advertised for free, though of course you're required to buy a drink at the very least, cutting the wallet down by a bare minimum of about a dollar (for the record my mango milkshake was more like $2.30).

The point of the story is that I watched Into the Wild. If you haven't seen it, do it. It's a great film. Read the book because that's good too. I took a few things away from it. First of all, my writing is awful. I guess for someone who majored in Physics and hasn't attended a writing class in over 4 years, it's not all that bad. However if you watch the movie, you'll know what I mean. The eloquence is beyond anything I could dream. Secondly, … wait for it, this is a huge shock for everyone who really knows me … I want to start reading. Motivation spurred by the movie has urged me to seek out Emerson and Thoreau, perhaps starting with something like Walden. I haven't read a book for pleasure since about eighth grade when I read the fourth Harry Potter book. That was 9 years ago, nearly last millennium. When I say this is a big deal, I'm not exaggerating. That being said, please don't buy me any books because I will become easily overwhelmed. Baby steps.

Third and most importantly, I walked away from the film feeling inspired. Fear not friends and family, I am not about to cut off all contact and run into the wilderness. However, after this tropical traveling, I think I'll be ready for a very rugged camping excursion with maybe just one or two like-minded people. I know at least one person at Denison right now who I might meet up with when I visit New Zealand in a few months. He would do it at the drop of a hat no doubt. The bottom line is that a lot has been put onto this Earth and before we know it, it'll either be gone or we'll be dead before we get to experience it. We shouldn't just live for the sake of taking another breath or waking up for another morning. We should live to be invigorated, to be fulfilled, to love, to experience, to have our breaths taken away.

So. There you have it. Is Chris MacCandless my new role model? No, but seeing the film lying on a mat leaned up against a bean bag with a cockroach crawling on my leg sipping a fresh mango milkshake sweating from the hot Indonesian breeze while alone among a crowd of unfamiliar faces did have an effect.