Into the Wild: Small Wonders

As a teacher, I’m not too proud to admit when I’m wrong and if I get a question I can’t answer, I’ll look it up. For one thing, I want to know more tomorrow than I do today and I want to practice what I preach, not just preach.

So, how I had never read the book or seen the film, Into the Wild, I’m not entirely sure. It wasn’t required reading when I was in high school because it was published after I graduated from college. It had been on my movie watch list for quite some time, but I just never pressed play.

Well, I stayed up past my bedtime watching the movie on this cold, blustery weekend and I can’t stop thinking about it. As a kid, I was fascinated by Gary Paulsen’s, Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George. I grew up with a forest for a backyard and as a teenager, I always reveled in the idea of surviving on my own in the wild. I think I even tried once, but it couldn’t have been that memorable since I can’t really remember it. I think the idea of it seemed more romantic than the actual reality of living off the land.

Nature is brutal. The circle of life is the Disney lens, but to me it’s more like kill or be killed. Christopher McCandless knew that when he trudged into the Alaskan wilderness after deciding that society was either too much or not enough for him. We could all probably be more minimalist (that’s my goal after watching the film), but risking life and limb to be “nowhere” is not in the back of most of our minds, let alone in front. 

People just like the outdoors. I’ve always marveled how we flock to water (salt or fresh), just to be near it or in it. Think about that for a second. Billions of people visit oceans, seas, beaches, lakes, rivers, ponds, creeks, water parks, etc. every single year. There’s no shame in that because I’m one of those people too, but Chris McCandless wanted to be in it, really in it. 

There’s a sadness I felt for him while watching the film because he really did know himself, or at least he knew what he didn’t want. I can resonate with that and I’m sure many others feel that way too. The world isn’t perfect by any means, but Chris found beauty in small wonders during his lower 48 journey and his final, fateful months in remote Alaska.

I drive the same road and look at the same hillside everyday on the way to work, but it never looks the same. It’s the way the sunrise hits it in the spring or how a layer of new snowfall gleams off it under a frigid, bluebird sky. I wonder how much I miss everyday because I’m thinking about work, scrolling mindlessly through my phone, or just being oblivious to something beautiful that may only be there for an instant.

These small wonders are always around us, and I can’t forget that.