Brent M. Jones - Connected Events Matter

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Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer

June 19, 2020, 12:50 PM MDT / Updated June 19, 2020, 2:21 PM MDT

By The Associated Press

State officials said that JUNEAU, Alaska — An abandoned bus in the Alaska back-country, popularized by the book “Into the Wild” and the movie of the same name, was removed Thursday. It was known as “Bus 142” and the “Magic Bus,” and the rusty green-and-white vehicle had exerted a dangerous and almost talismanic power over hikers for nearly a quarter-century — ever since the book “Into the Wild” immortalized Christopher McCandless’s solitary odyssey and lonely death in the Alaskan outback.

Christopher McCandless graduated from Emory University in Atlanta in 1992.   He came from a successful, wealthy family, did well in school, and had $24,000 in cash that he could give to charity when he made his life-changing decision. McCandless changed his name to Alex Supertramp and then hitchhiked to Alaska, where he went to “live in the wild.”

Compare his trip to Thoreau (in itself an excellent reason to look at this review), who said about his Walden experience, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, “to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” Thoreau was within walking distance of where Emerson lived, and he probably felt he had learned all those essential facts, but McCandless must have learned far more than he expected before those basic facts took his life.

McCandless changed his name to Alex Supertramp. His statement about why he did this was ``You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''.  He had nothing but a rice bag and had thrown away his map. He left a diary, letters, and notes which tell of his unsuccessful effort to survive.  He was lost, injured, and starving, and after four months, a moose hunter found his decomposed body.

 The author dug into McCandless’s youth to see if he just had a death wish.  He found a rebellious, moody young man with a strained relationship with his father but nothing that would point to anything but an adventurist young man who made severe mistakes on this trip.

Quotes by Jon Krakauer

“Happiness is only real when shared”

“It's not always necessary to be strong, but to feel strong.” 

“Some people feel like they don't deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.”   

“We like companionship, but we can't stand to be around people for very long. So we get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get out again." 

“The core of man’s spirit comes from new experiences.”