He did quite well in Alaska though. I admired that. From the little I heard I thought he was just going to do something really stupid right away and freeze to death.
I loved that old artist (not the leather guy, the first one) in wherever they were–SE California maybe?
I felt like the only thing he did that was really stupid was not study the plants in his area until he was hungry. That killed him. He had done such a good job at studying the philosophy, and making sure he had the ‘heart’ for it, that he forgot to have a ‘mind’ for it, as well. He should have also hiked his moose meat up into the snowpack, rather than try and deal with the spring swarm of insects.
I think he did well with what he had, and taught us an important lesson, that happiness is only real when shared. If he had just one more person, maybe the hottie from the RV camp, they would have made it.
He did his best with what he had, and rather than have a boyhood filled with memories of family outdoor teachings, he had a family full of abuse. Was it any wonder then, why he couldn’t find his peace in the Blue Mountains, but had to go to the Great White North?
He was trying to kill the angry civil person iside of him that was grating at him when he read Thoreau and London and the like. He had a very common misperception that only Alaska is wild and untouched. He found everything he was looking for, but he still had a plan to go to ALaska. Manytimes on his journey he was being invited to another journey, but because he was single-minded, bcause he made the destination itself important, he killed himself tripping over an over-abundance of support.
So you could say he was stupid for having all of this and punting it away for the sake of his destination. He got so close, within inches of a missed field goal, of winning the game.
So I walked away from the movie with two lessons. One, know about where you are going, don’t jsut assume you’ll ‘figure it out’. Two, don’t have a specific destination. They say if you want to make God laugh, make a plan. Allow your journey to carry you, don’t try and carry your journey.
And if you can’t do it alone, if you aren’t objectively ready to take care of yourself alone, then do it with someone else. They will pick you up where you have left of. They will bring you back, show you your mistakes, help you learn, help prevent you from glossing over yourself, adn creating a dangerous, deadly myth of yourself.
The guy who believed in love? Yeah, he was beautiful!