My soul, bared for all.

I just watched Into the Wild with Chris and Reed, and these are my gut reactions:

The whole time I was watching the movie I thought of a quote by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an 18th century French philosopher, who is most famous for his statement "man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains". Rousseau believed that the natural state of man is the only one in which he is truly happy. This natural state is where man lives as an individual only, his only cares and wants are to provide for his survival. He lives perpetually in a pre-Descartes revelation: "I am therefore I am". In this state, where man is only self-aware, his nature is lent towards kindness and altruism because he has no care for any other, positive or negative. It is when we become aware of others that we develop the idea of power and pride and we lose that simple life of few concerns. And now it is society that creates our unhappiness.

This seems to embody the idea of Chris, or Alex (the main character). He read of philosophers like Rousseau and Thoreau who found their happiness in solitude and simplicity, and he took them to heart without considering the external forces acting upon them, or the consequences of their thought. And so, he takes up their burden unrest, and a burden it is, believe me, and believes that this will take him far from the lies and pain and violence that he has experienced.


I do not want to take too much away from the movie, and so I won't give everything to you, but I think that the man at Salvation Mountain said it best when he said "I think a lot of people out there love me, and I just hope for the wisdom to love them back." What words are greater than these? It is that wisdom I lack, but even more than that, its the vision to see that there are people out there who love me, that God loves me.

I could go off on dozens of tangents from here, but I have had a hard enough time writing this knowing that other people will read it. This is part of me looking for my anchor, by letting people in. So I will end with this: look to those around you, look to God, let yourself love and be loved, because when we love, the light of God shines on us.