There was a book, called Into the Wild, which was recently made into a movie. Of course, my family was really into it, mainly because Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam made the sound track. You might remember that we went into NYC to see it when it first came out. But in addition to the sound track, the story was very appealing to us as well.
It was about this kid, Christopher McCandless. (Did I spell that correctly?) It's a true story. After this kid graduated college, he had enough money and good enough grades to go to Harvard Grad school and make his parents proud. But instead, he ran away from home. He wanted to get away from society and the materialistic culture we live in. At first, he just wandered around as a tramp. Eventually, He decided he wanted to go "into the wild", on a great Alaskan adventure, and live off the fat of the land. Unfortunately, the kid wasn't well prepared or well trained.
He made it to Alaska, where he found an abandoned bus to live in. He kept a journal of sorts, which is how anyone knows anything about him. And it seems, according to the movie, that he found the answers he was looking for -- but it was too late. He couldn't get back out of the wild. When he tried to hike out, the streams he had crossed going in had become raging rivers he couldn't cross. Being unprepared, he hadn't brought a map to find his way to the place he could ford the river. Then, he accidentally ate poison berries. And died. In the bus.
It was a great story.
No, really, it was, because some of the philosophical questions he had raised were answered... at least, they were in the movie. It's lovely how a movie can tie everything together. It was almost like he sacrificed himself to show you the way to a happy life. More or less. And the video was gorgeous, of all the beautiful scenery.
Plus, obviously the sound track was great -- I like it more than Frankie does, because it's more simplified without the whole Pearl Jam band backing Eddie. And actually, Vedder is doing a solo tour, and tickets go on sale tomorrow. So I have my fingers crossed to go.
So. The point to my story is this.
Frank and I went to the Catskills this weekend. We decided to look into buying property, like a summer house or something. (Which we decided against, but that's a whole other story.) But... one of the properties we found was this.
It was so "Into the Wild", I really would like to get it. It even had a spring, and a two-seater out house! Unfortunately, the out house is just up hill, close to the spring. This seems like a really BAD idea to me.
As for the real "Into the Wild" bus, in Alaska, where the kid actually died, it has apparently become quite a tourist attraction. Which is a really bad idea, because it's obviously a dangerous place... it killed McCandless!
