i'd say the person I admire and inspires me the most is Christopher McCandless, a man that could have been almost anything he wanted inside society yet choose to cast it all away, burned his money (literally) and took to the tramp life to seek the deeper meanings in life that society tends to shield from our hearts, though his death may be considered by many stupid or wasteful I see no failure in it and find he lived more in those 2 years of adventure then most do their whole lives.
Now
that could be another thread with a whole lotta commentary, as opinions are sharply divided on this guy. One thing is for certain though - park rangers in Alaska (and elsewhere) have seen an increase in behavior by young men modeled after McCandless, which is referred to as the McCandless Syndrome/Phenomenon. I haven't read Krakauer's book or seen the flick, but I guess I need to. There's something in McCandless' ill-prepared adventure that seems to touch a lot of people.
My initial impression, after reading an article on him years ago, was simple and brusque: what an idiot. Apparently that's a very common reaction, especially among those of us who do venture "Into the Wild" - regularly, prepared, and with a healthy degree of respect for Mama Nature's temperament. Clearly though, I'm missing something. I realize I'm a left-brain kinda guy and will view almost any matter from a practical, linear standpoint first, but I have enough right-brain inventory to recognize that other people will see the same pattern differently from me. Anyway, I ordered Krakauer's
book from Amazon today to see if I can make sense of McCandless and his story. A lot of people appear to see him as a hero, as you do Rogue. I'd really like to understand it.
