The Beauty of the Wild.

It takes a lot to leave your life behind and rebirth yourself into a fresh human being. Timothy Treadwell and Chris McCandless are heroes in my eyes because they each had enough self-respect and honor to become a new person.

Treadwell, being a recovering alcoholic, he had to throw away his addiction to a life centered on alcohol and replace it with an addiction to a life focused on the well being of grizzly bears. “I feel good about myself when I do this,” explained Treadwell. He did this because he thought that he belonged with nature to be a spirit amongst the bears. He even said, “I must be a spirit in the wilderness.” Timothy Treadwell isn’t his given name; it’s an alias for his new life. He died alongside the alcoholism. Treadwell was utterly devoted to the bears, I think, because he had an identity crisis and chose to identify himself as a guardian of the bears because he could not protect himself from letting his life spiral downwards. He isolated himself from physical human contact in order to get in touch with himself. The isolation would help him to escape from the world and get to know himself. Once he knew who he actually was, he could depend on and trust himself. Eventually he would be a stable being. Stability, in this case, is the key element to finding happiness.

It was impossible to determine exactly when McCandless had died (Krakauer, 13).

It was concluded that Chris McCandless had died of starvation, but I would have to disagree. I think the starvation was simply a side-effect of his loneliness. He felt alienated from society because he knew that he wasn't like them. He didn't feel they shared the same viewpoint on what it means or how it feels to be human. I don't think Chris really knew how he wanted to be, but he knew that he wanted to make a change in his life. He died because on his journey to find himself, he found that only having himself is the loneliest feeling. It seems to me that he really didn't like who he was or his life, considering the fact that he let it all waste away, rather than taking his fresh start and making a new life that he could enjoy. He let himself die long before he passed away. I guess, McCandless forefeited his life to the higher power of misery. He's a hero to me because he separated himself from his social class to escape society and just be. He didn't simply die a lonely, hungry, cold traveler, he died exactly the way he wanted to: in the wild.

There are no social classes in the wild. Sometimes it seems to be the only place where a body can escape and just be. Without any restrictions or pressure of society. The wilderness is where a person can go to release their true inner being. Ironically, McCandless and Treadwell both died in the wild, doing whatever they could do to either find or follow his purpose. The thing is, they both died in nature, far away from civilization, but ironically it was at the tip of their fingers. McC died against a bus. The purpose of a bus is to transport a group of people from one place to another, yet McC is still alone with nature. Treadwell died with a camera and maybe? a hellicopter near by. I just think it's so interesting that civilization was so close, but couldn't do anything to save either of the heroes.

spaceships don't come equipt with rearview mirrors.

I find the power fast food chains have over the world to be astonishing.

In relation to one of my past blog posts, I said that fast food nations around America were hurting American health standards. I stated that, "these fast food restaurants don't make it easier to eat right. They cloak their "effort" to improve the nation's health with product design and inviting advertisements that make the public really think they're making the healthy choice... when someone orders something "healthy" at McD's they package the food in a nice green and crisp plastic bag rather than the crunchy red and white classic bag, making the consumer think that they made a healthy change in his or her diet." I think the advertising, product placement, and packaging of the fast food products are insulting to Americans.

Now I realize that consumers keep feeding into the palms of these big corporations that are doing nothing but damaging the health of not only Americans, but all over the world. My dad goes to China a lot and he told me that it's not uncommon to see a line out the door and down the street to get into a Pizza Hut or McDonalds. The big fast food corporations feed powerful men and women who do nothing but create more schemes to make another buck not only from Americans, but from the world.

I wonder: Has America polluted the world, or has the American culture just simply been integrated into the cultures around the world? After that, what's next? The Moon?

Shoo fly, don't bother me: WASP Nation

I think America is too focused on WASPs (WhiteAngloSaxonProtestants). Some consider this social class to be the creme de la creme of society. Really, I couldn't care less. First off, why would someone want to associate themselves with a wasp. It sounds like something that a fly swatter could take care of.... or are they wasps because catching a fly is a hard thing to do? When I think of a fly, I think of a pesky bug in search for a little nibble of food. A fly in a fruit stand: Unfortunately, that fruit stand operator wouldn't want to share his/her sweets with that fly, so he/she'd do his/her best to shoo that pestering fly away... but they keep coming back because they know there's something to feed off of. This seems to be the social class that Chris McCandless made a dire effort to escape from. Just like I wouldn't want a fly away from my sandwich, the fruit vendor wouldn't want a fly on their produce, Chris wanted to repel those WASPs away from himself. He did everything he could to separate himself from that society. He went so far as to completely separate himself from society.I think his statements about society will continue to influence the world.

Here's a guy zemanta found who's taking a McC adventure:

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life in a box of chocolates

Tom Hanks famously said:
"My mama always said that life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gunna get."
-Forrest Gump

If life's really like a box of chocolates, and each chocolate you pick out of that box is some life changing event or element that you can't live without, then the selectivity of that would drive me crazy. Some people just take a bite out of a piece of chocolate before they eat the whole thing (to see what's inside) - symbol of curiosity of peeking into or having a taste of the future and seeing what it has in store for you - It seems like everyone is far too concentrated about which things they get in life. In class we've been talking about social class, and I came to this conclusion on my comparison to chocolate and life/societal gain: some people want the rich, dark chocolate (UC, $$$$), some want the milk chocolate (UMC, $$$), some want the white chocolate (MC, $$), and other just don't want any chocolate (LC---)! I think it honestly think it doesn't matter which piece of chocolate you pick out of that box (if you do choose one), because in the end, it's all just chocolate. If it's all just chocolate just like life is life, you choose certain aspects or events that make you appreciate the things you get out of life. You can either set the chocolate to the side, take just a little bite, or just swallow that little piece of chocolate whole. After all, life isn't about the tangible prizes, it's the feeling you get in your gut that lets you know you did something worthy in your life. So are you the kind of person that nibbles at that piece of chocolate until you decide whether that piece of chocolate is worthy of your consumption, always hesitant in life to take a step forward or too scared to try something new... or do you just swallow it whole, engulfing life and taking each plunge that goes along with it? Should you choose to behold a piece of chocolate/life? Should you neglect the opportunity? It's almost as if life can symbolically be handed right to you in that little box of chocolates. Simple. Right?