America and Journeying Into the Wild

Last week I dragged Rho and Jon to watch Into the Wild... a true story capturing two years in the life of Chris McCandless, a college grad in the 90's who dropped the luxuries of life we know today to trek through America and to set forth on his "great Alaskan adventure".  I read the book almost a decade ago and his travels intrigued me... living in the barest of situations and appreciating what is life around us taken for granted...

Working in corporate America stinks but the sweet taste of winning in a consumer steering society has me staying for superficial reasons. Money is great, but the Chris McCandless story has kept me yearning for years to live in the simplest of ways. This is a lot coming from a guy typing on a Macbook Pro, checking work e-mail on a Blackberry, sending text messages on an iPhone, and planning to watch the 2nd disc of Heroes on HD-DVD tonight. Technology and luxury is nice; not knowing the existence of these things or being able to drop it all for a moment for unbound life is God-like.

It probably explains my frequent hikes through the hills of Los Altos, my weekend coastline drives through Highway 1, through the sloping curves of Skyline Boulevard in Woodside, listening to the organic sound of Mark Kozelek and the Red House Painters, or My Morning Jacket when night time turns into sunrise, riding off the effects of a couple of shots of Maker's Mark. I think the appreciation of Americana and rural life is lost behind the big shadows of places like where I live. The highway to Silicon Valley seems to be the final destination people are satisfied with; the back roads of America are long lost and untraveled.

I remember growing up reading the books of John Steinbeck and being intrigued with the way of life during the great depression. Where one's situation almost always equaled financial discontent, the big picture in my eyes seemed to be that simplicity remained to be beautiful. A huge part of me still thinks that a tractor driver in a vast field hundreds of miles from a mall has a more satisfying life than an iPod listener riding public transport on the way to his dot com job. Where some plan a weekend trip to live like a rock star in Vegas, I would much rather be fly fishing off a desolate bank on the Colorado River. As many have found out, I am easy to please and know I want nothing from you when you ask.