Into The Wild - John Krakauer - Dec 08

Wow. I mean really, wow.

This was a true story. I remember when I was living in Maryland, just outside of DC, from 1987 to 1993. I recall the news reports and the printed articles about this story. The family was living in Virginia and Maryland at the time and so it was considered a local story. I had no idea that this book was about he same incident and family from that time. It quickly brought back the memories of that time.

I did not know all these details back then. Chris McCandless was an amazing person with an amazing story. I can't believe anyone was able to piece it all together like John Krakauer was able to do.

So...on to me...this book made me think of my own desire to go "Into the Wild", sort of. I have spoken a bunch of times with my wife about wanting to go for a walk. I have this desire to just sell my stuff and go walk around the country. I want to meet people, get a stupid job in a small town until I feel like moving on and then hit the road again. Just keep on going until I get sick of it. Chris McCandless took that much further than I desire too. I would never burn my money. I don't want to disconnect from my family. I just want to go out there and "explore". (BTW...my wife gets upset when I talk about doing this because she thinks I am not happy at home or something. That is not the truth and home has nothing to do with the desire to explore.)

In some ways Chris McCandless is my hero, except for the starving to death part. I know I would have gone better prepared. I would have had a map and compass at least. But, he did what he wanted. He chased his dream. He actually went into the wild!