Into the Mild

I loved the book, "Into the Wild." And, while I had a few issues with the way it was edited, the recently-released movie version was a great flick. True to the book, it captured Alex Supertramp's infectious zeal for life and his contagious enthusiasm to live "authentically."

To oversimplify, this kid took Thoreau seriously when the sage from Walden Pond wrote, "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."

I've made solo jaunts into wilderness (though nothing like camping on my own in the backcountry for weeks, much less months). And I've done it long enough to recognize there truly is something essential within us that seems to become visible only when alone and/or in nature. Despite what the fundies wish were true, I am fairly certain the planet is more than 3,000 years old...and that we humans are glorified monkeys. As such, my theory is that there is a kind of artificiality to modernity that obfiscates elemental truths about ourselves. There is something in nature that allows us to get in touch with a lost (buried?) part of our being.

Don't get me wrong: This thing that Edward Abbey called "syphilization" is great - I am glad to not be foraging daily (like the monkey I am) for food. Add I'm awfully grateful I'm not having to fight off (or run from) animals with better fighting abilities (like house cats, for example). As for sleeping in a good bed with (relatively) clean sheets - well, yeah - I like that, too. But I do think getting to (or remembering) the essence of who and what we are is more likely to occur (is easier to access?) in "the wild."

I felt the call to abandon syphilization more than once. (And I still do from time to time.) But what this kid did was off-the-grid abandonment of mainstream society: what the hippies called dropping out. I never quite pulled that trigger, although I seriously contemplated it at several points in my life.

Chris McCandless did it.

The reason, though, that his story is so richly compelling is because of the moral complexities it raises. The kid felt an insatiable urge to do an American version of the walkabout. After graduating from college (the perfect time to do such a thing) he just took off.

I am not about to give anything away that you don't discover at the beginning of the book, so I do not feel the need to provide a spoiler alert here: the tragedy of his story is that he seemed to learn something esssential about himself just before he died. Namely, that he was not a loner hermit-type. He needed other people to share his experiences with...the authenticity he found - and the enlightenment he probably only discovered because he was alone - wasn't complete without companionship.

Almost without exception, the negative book AND movie reviews (and they were in the minority) mentioned that the kid was a self-absorbed, immature asshole. The "negative" camp seemed unable to separate their personal feelings about his decisions from the literature/art about Chris and his adventure.

Was it bunge-hole selfish of him to not contact his family for two years - leaving them worried as rats in a snake hole? Sure it was, especially given that he didn't appear to be the victim of sexual/physical or serious emotional abuse. But to merely label him as either a self-absorbed prick or a hero to be admired (as so many did) is too simplistic.

We get one crack at this thing. And it's an awfully short crack as far as I'm concerned. Our most important obligation in life is to be true to ourselves...whatever that means to you. I think it's equally important, though, that we learn how to love. That we continually strive to get better at practicing that love, by being kind to other creatures (including, but not limited to, fellow humans).

McCandless found out the latter after pursuing the former. Hence the tragedy. But then, there seem to be people who never discover the importance of learning to love. Or, they just can't figure out how to practice it. That is the mark of a truly wasted and tragic life.

It is when those two guiding principles (being true to Self and loving others) seem to be in conflict that the figurative bear scat really hits the wind turbine.

So far, at least for me (I think) I've been able to maneuver the narrow path laid down by those two parameters - with a LOT of help and guidance and patience from other people. Not to claim that I've never gone out of bounds, mind you...I've just been fortunate to have found my way back - unlike Alex Supertramp.

That's why I think I've gone more "into the mild" than "into the wild."

On Your Knees (to) Bowie

With screwed up eyes and screwed down hairdo, what is it about David Bowie?

Like a leper messiah, he ranks somewhere between minor deity and major historical figure.

Hey man: he was ranked a few notches below Queen Elizabeth but a few above such luminaries as Thomas Paine, William Blake and Charles Dickens in the 100 Greatest Britons of All Time list. He was the first rocker to have his persona offered on the stock market, the first to offer his music via the internet and the first to appear in a video game. He presaged and pretty much single-handedly spawned glam-rock, being among the first rockers to consciously approach music as art. He has certainly had the most successful acting career among all the rock musicians.

The Thin White Duke sang in "Station to Station" (1976) about traveling down the Cabalistic tree of life: "...from kether to malkuth..." or, from godhead to earth. He became incarnate for us...for those of us able to hear him...he came offering a kind of aural pathway to enlightenment.

Waiting at the light, know what I mean...Jesus leads some to the light...others go with Muhammad or Buddha or Adam or Joseph Smith or The Three Friggin Stooges...me, I'm keeping all my dead hair for making up underwear: the holy undergarments we need to wear when Ziggy returns on the tail of comet, taking his true believers with him.

Top 10 Reasons Bowie is Better than God :*

1) You cannot reasonably deny Bowie's existence
2) Bowie has cooler clothes
3) David is less likely to cast sinners through the gates of hell
4) If you hear Bowie's voice in your head, it's probably because one of his kick-ass song's is stuck in your mind; if you hear God, you are probably whack
5) God couldn't tease His hair up that high - even with all the angels' assistance - even during the 80s
6) David has better shoes
7) Bowie looks better in drag
8) People don't accost you in malls to tell you, "Bowie loves you."
9) Attending a Bowie concert is much more life-altering than attending church
10) God doesn't paint His toenails

* Partially snagged from a site that snagged it from a (now-defunct) fan site