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Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 3 days ago)
35,610 posts, read 17,940,183 times
Reputation: 50634
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Quote:
Originally Posted by duke944
His sister had no say, the fact his parents gave permission shows the level of a$$hatery Chris left behind.
You might want to research his sister.
She was very supportive, as Krakauer was very supportive of her book.
And although she divulged the extent of the domestic abuse they suffered, at her request, he left all that out of Into the Wild, in the hopes that her parents would change for the better. (They didn't).
All this has actually made me feel like reading Jack London again.
What’s that quote-“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise”. Something like that. I’ll have to look it up.
What’s that quote-“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise”. Something like that. I’ll have to look it up.
Perhaps that’s what Chris was looking for.
I think that is exactly what he was looking for - and sometimes found.
Edited to add: Some of you might appreciate this very thoughtful and balanced essay by a native Alaskan about McCandless and how different people view his adventure and the bus. A Man Made Cold by the Universe.
This may be a good place to post this very interesting story a woman told me this past spring. She got a breast cancer dx about ten years ago and went through treatment but ended up stage 4 with nothing more to be done. Her husband left her and her world was shattered and she just wanted to die anyway so she headed out in her van to the woods with water but no food, sort of *Native American elder hope to get eaten by a grizzly* style. She laid out in her van for a few days getting weaker, when a bear did indeed show up and just sort of hung around for about two weeks. She continued to fast and she was never quite sure if it was even a real bear but it seemed friendly enough. Then it left, but what was more interesting is that her cancer was gone! She did get tested and this happened about ten years ago and she looks fabulous and very healthy at somewhere around age 55.
This may be a good place to post this very interesting story a woman told me this past spring. She got a breast cancer dx about ten years ago and went through treatment but ended up stage 4 with nothing more to be done. Her husband left her and her world was shattered and she just wanted to die anyway so she headed out in her van to the woods with water but no food, sort of *Native American elder hope to get eaten by a grizzly* style. She laid out in her van for a few days getting weaker, when a bear did indeed show up and just sort of hung around for about two weeks. She continued to fast and she was never quite sure if it was even a real bear but it seemed friendly enough. Then it left, but what was more interesting is that her cancer was gone! She did get tested and this happened about ten years ago and she looks fabulous and very healthy at somewhere around age 55.
That is an interesting story with a nice ending. the problem becomes when every 55 year old woman with Breast cancer decides to forgo medical treatment and head out to the reservation thinking it will cure her cancer if they fast and hang out with a bear.
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 3 days ago)
35,610 posts, read 17,940,183 times
Reputation: 50634
I went to the fabulous movie, "Maiden", yesterday, and couldn't help thinking about McCandless and Strayed.
The story is about the first female crew to race in Whitbread Round the World sailboat race in 1989. Lots of sentiment about taking risk you're willing to take, for the adventure and thrill of a lifetime.
Fabulous documentary, all original footage - no acting. It's just thrilling, to hear these women's recollections of this excursion, and how pushing yourself beyond the limit you thought you were capable of is life-changing.
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 3 days ago)
35,610 posts, read 17,940,183 times
Reputation: 50634
Quote:
Originally Posted by eliza61nyc
That is an interesting story with a nice ending. the problem becomes when every 55 year old woman with Breast cancer decides to forgo medical treatment and head out to the reservation thinking it will cure her cancer if they fast and hang out with a bear.
It appears her alternative was to lay in a hospice bed until a slowish death overtook her.
I think I'd take the wilderness trailer and the bear, too.
I went to the fabulous movie, "Maiden", yesterday, and couldn't help thinking about McCandless and Strayed.
The story is about the first female crew to race in Whitbread Round the World sailboat race in 1989. Lots of sentiment about taking risk you're willing to take, for the adventure and thrill of a lifetime..
But remember the very first line int he movie? "The ocean is always trying to kill you."
That race crew was indeed doing a daring thing - but it was a daring thing they had the training to actually do. Every one of them had experience in sailing. And they outfitted their ship to be as sea-worthy as they could make it. They didn't deliberately under-prepare to make the experience more thrilling and more dangerous.
They knew that taking a risk might stretch you and change you, but taking too much of a risk just leave you dead. (I suppose one can argue that becoming dead changes you, but it's not a change most of us deliberately seek out.)
I think Chris McCandless (and many of his younger admirers) was attempting to seek out a state of Dionysian ecstasy "that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise" (as ByeByeLW quoted). And that state is achievable - but only for a brief moment. It doesn't last. You can't live in that state. Eventually you have to come down off of the summit and join the rest of us down here in Mundania. And that's true regardless of whether you are a hunter-gatherer (find berries, pick berries, eat berries; find berries, pick berries, eat berries...), a subsistence farmer (plant, tend, harvest; plant, tend, harvest...), or a modern city dweller (commute to work, process insurance claims, go home; commute to work, process insurance claims, go home...). We all of us are trapped in the ordinary rhythms of life. We can't escape that. Trying to live permanently on the mountaintop leads to a form of excitement addiction that ultimately kills just as surely as a heroin addiction does.
There's a famous zen koan McCandless's followers would do well to contemplate: "Before achieving Enlightenment, you must haul water and chop wood. After achieving Enlightenment, you must haul water and chop wood."
That is an interesting story with a nice ending. the problem becomes when every 55 year old woman with Breast cancer decides to forgo medical treatment and head out to the reservation thinking it will cure her cancer if they fast and hang out with a bear.
Ah yes, the imaginary gullible women who read a chance story on the internet and base all treatment decisions on that. Did you miss the part about her being terminal?
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