"Happiness is only real when shared"


I watched a very in-depth and, as my husband would put it, weird movie the other night. "Into the Wild" is a true story about Chris McCandless. In the early '90's he graduated college and walked away from everything--changing his name temporarily, to pursue happiness and to leave the restrictions of society's boundaries. He left the comforts of home and trekked across the country landing in some great places, meeting many people from what I would call the 'fringe' of society. He did some really cool things.. and some quite rebellious like kayaking down a river (name escapes me) where he needed a 'permit'..heavily pursued by authorities--do you call them river police? He finally made it to the Alaskan 'home' he had been seeking. His plan was to live there for a while and then leave when his work was done~apparently documenting his journey in order to eventually write a book. For me it was a walk in a social study of his life and the affects of his choices. His end was bleak and his last written words, the title of this post. He did all he did to only conclude what so many learn without choosing his path or that of so many ill-fated individuals: "Happiness is only real when shared."


The movie left me pondering so many thoughts, one of which; counting the cost. As he decided to leave he gathered up his precious few belongings and seemed almost to be elated as he planned to leave his humble abode. He began his trek along the same path he had taken in the winter snows only now the landscape was bursting with freshness that only spring can bring. Once he made his way to the river/stream that he had to cross to continue his path to an unmentioned destination, (I can only conclude that he was going home), he found it swollen from the melting snows. It was certainly impassable and yet he could see the marker, a knitted cap, he had left hanging in the branches. So close but yet so far from his reach.


It was almost at this point that I noticed he suddenly changed. It was as if all of a sudden he became depressed by the circumstance he found himself in even though throughout the movie he had overcome a great number of obstacles. Not without struggle, yet he did overcome~yet here I felt his mindset changed and perhaps began letting hopelessness creep into him. He was weakened from a poor diet, but again he appeared strong up until this point in the movie. He failed to count the cost, in my view. The cost of choosing to wait till the spring thaw to leave the isolated place of his heart. It seems a simple calculation: snow, spring, melt, river, impassable. He was forced to return to the abandoned camp and from there he began a spiralling fall into oblivion. His life ended from starvation-found two weeks later by moose hunters.


Of course, this was the movie adapted from his writings and as I well understand it had been embellished with all the things to fill in the empty spots not covered in his writings. The kinds of things that leave a viewer such as myself with certain conclusions about him and his choices. The 'read between the lines' kinds of things that make the movie a movie. It was good. It was deep. It successfully left me in thought. It left me kind of saddened and empty. Now I have seen the photo shown at the end of the movie--one found in his camera when they developed the film--on the internet as I was reading an article on a study of happiness. As a matter of fact, his last known words were part of the third 'amazing' tip the author used to illustrate his point. (http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/happiness-3-amazing-tips-from-the-worlds-oldest-case-study-479340/)


Interesting. Funny how you can watch a movie, like it, share the info with a friend (I just was telling Jess at work about this movie and its affect on me yesterday), then find parts of it in other areas. Not a mistake. There is something I should learn from this, I am certain of this. The older I get, the more convinced I am of taking head of these types of events. So I am looking now. Looking for the lesson, the nugget, the little tidbit that I am to take and put into place in my life now. The main thing as mentioned, 'count the cost' and of course 'happiness is only real when shared'...the rest will unfold. I should also mention, this movie came about after I recently finished watching a series about people left in a remote place in Alaska to survive and find their way back to civilization-- "Out of Alaska"- I suppose it is a documentary of sorts. Funny how both of these parallel in so many ways! I highly recommend both.


I leave you with the photo that sparked this whole post! LOL Find the movie, watch it. If there is a book, read it. Let it sit on you for a while.