Supertramp

I was walking down the sidewalk with a friend the other day, musing over the beauty of our state capital when I saw a squirrel skittering across the walkway in front of us. I slowed to a mere crawl and relayed a story about how I had to do the same thing earlier in the day.

I had been running on a bike path in my often progressive city when a squirrel decided to cross in front of me. There were two people walking in the other direction and the squirrel became “trapped” between our two groups. I stopped in this situation to let him reach his tree without a heart attack.

After I relayed this story my friend looked at me, frowned, and said “I worry about you sometimes”. Now I have friends that are far from progressive, couldn’t give a shit about a squirrel, and would have been laughing at me. This friend wasn’t like that though, so I was thoroughly confused. When I asked for clarification he told me that he was afraid one day I would “pull a Chris McCandless” and just disappear. I don’t think he appreciated my response “I’d be happy doing that, why is it a bad thing to go off like that?”

I would obviously not seek the outcome of McCandless’s adventures, but what is so wrong with having some of my own? Revolutionary Road did a great job showing a more run-of-the-mill crowd what can happen when dreams are crushed. I refuse to wake up when I’m 50 and realize I never did go off on my own for a year or two, travelling the world—or what’s left of it.

So perhaps I will “pull a Chris Mccandless” and I’ll be happy to say I did.

"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