INTO THE WILD by Jon Krakauer
Views and opinions of this book's young hero vary greatly. I spoke with a well read, senior gentleman who reached his conclusion half way through the book and quit reading. He said, "The kid [Chris McCandless] was an idiot [for going to Alaska with romantic ideas and minimal preparation]". This opinion is widely adopted.
I believe that McCandless had a brilliant mind. Highly intelligent people have weaknesses too; in fact, their hearts are just as susceptible to pain as yours and mine. Abandonment, disloyalty and disapproval wound every heart with an overall sense of rejection. Rejection breeds criticism, judgment and un-forgiveness.
Un-forgiveness sucks.
If we don't want to become terrible hypocrites, then we have to forgive people for failing us and causing harm to our hearts. I know that I have wounded someone's heart before. There may even be wounds that I have caused without realizing my fault. I am, and we are, constantly at risk of harming other people again and again. If we want to be forgiven for our faults, great and small, then we need to forgive people for their faults great and small.
Views and opinions of this book's young hero vary greatly. I spoke with a well read, senior gentleman who reached his conclusion half way through the book and quit reading. He said, "The kid [Chris McCandless] was an idiot [for going to Alaska with romantic ideas and minimal preparation]". This opinion is widely adopted.
I believe that McCandless had a brilliant mind. Highly intelligent people have weaknesses too; in fact, their hearts are just as susceptible to pain as yours and mine. Abandonment, disloyalty and disapproval wound every heart with an overall sense of rejection. Rejection breeds criticism, judgment and un-forgiveness.
Un-forgiveness sucks.
If we don't want to become terrible hypocrites, then we have to forgive people for failing us and causing harm to our hearts. I know that I have wounded someone's heart before. There may even be wounds that I have caused without realizing my fault. I am, and we are, constantly at risk of harming other people again and again. If we want to be forgiven for our faults, great and small, then we need to forgive people for their faults great and small.
McCandless could not stand the faults of his parents. He also could not stand the hypocrisy of the world. He could not bring his heart to reconcile the faults of his parents and the world. Chris wanted to be pure in the world and pure among the world's people. He wanted to see well, but he couldn't find a good vantage point. Looking at the world from the perspective of his own heart caused him to realize, that the lens through which he peered needed desperately to be cleansed or else he would never see through the fog. We, all of us, are what we choose to see. We are what we come to realize. We are what we know.
I am myself and this is how I see the world.
If I want to change myself, I have to change the way my heart perceives everything. Chris didn't want to replicate the faults that he saw. He wanted to purify himself. He wanted to change, to do away with un-forgiveness and hypocrisy. He wanted to be beauty and see beauty. What he did is what it took for him. Chris McCandless did not tackle the great outdoors or seek a sense of accomplishment. He tackled his own heart in the only place where he knew to find it, see it clearly, take it captive and begin to change.
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