Monday 12 November 2012

Into the wild

Have you seen this film? Into the Wild?

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It's long and sometimes indulgent, but I can't get it out of my head. We came late to it, being filmed in 2007, but I guess having babies puts pay to cinema trips and living in the countryside makes that virtually impossible. But I'm so glad we found it.

Although fidgeting through the two and a half hours of pretty much dialogue-free cinematography got me sighing and occasionally checking my watch, there were some truly soul searching moments. I'm not particularly looking for myself, I tried that once in India and found myself right there looking back at me. But the part of the film where the protagonist claims that the joy of life comes with new experiences got me shouting "YES! That's right! I've always said that, bugger your flat screen TV and labelled clothes, go down the beach in the winter, in the rain and feel the world."

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."

— Chris McCandless

I'm off to Africa in 10 days time. All by myself. With many new stories to tell on my return, I hope.

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