Trapped In the Wild

My therapist recently recommended Seven Years in Tibet to me. I watched it, I enjoyed it, I enjoyed looking at Brad Pitt for just over two hours straight, but I didn't find in it what she said. She saw it differently than how I did. She was amazed that this man took seven years off from his life and lived in Tibet. I saw someone who didn't have much of a choice for a good chunk of it but still found the experience fulfilling in a life altering way.

But, last night I watched a movie about someone who took some years off from life. Who made the obvious and almost completely volunteer choice to live in a different way than nearly everyone else. I watched Into the Wild. Good movie. Interesting views though I do believe that the main character, who also happened to be a real person, went to the extreme. That living our lives in a way that the masses do not doesn't necessarily mean living off the land and living like a bum at times.

Not that he was lazy or even ever really a bum. Far from it. Very far from it.

But - what he was trying to do was live from the spirit. Which it appears he did. And assuming there was alot of truth in the movie, he helped a few folk along the way. I give him much credit. But, I still don't think I have to go live on top of a mountain somewhere, shooting critters for dinner.

Instead, I'll live without cable or myspace or Facebook. And I'll read. And I'll love. And I'll enjoy my friends and family. And eventually I'll begin to travel. And hopefully, with some drive and maybe just a smidgen of luck, I'll help others do the same. Not only in my actions but in my writing and in my other endeavors. Maybe I'll be able to go "into the wild" as well, without having to read books specifically on which berries I can and cannot eat. Maybe I'll be able to go into the wild without becoming trapped there, with no way out. Maybe I've already found the bridge back to sanity. And maybe I'm loving it as it is. With only a few tweaks left to make.