The last truth uncovered by Chris/ Alexander Super-tramp on his ultimate tryst with life… the Great Alaskan Adventure.
‘Into the Wild’ is a movie that would appeal to most Romantics. A world without attachments is a free world. It leads us to the final and only question “Is peace of mind, happiness???” Is a complete carefree existence with no strings attached the key to happiness???
I know all of us would readily answer in the negative to the above question, however if we delve slightly deeper into the issue the answer starts seeming more and more non-trivial and often indeed impossible to justify.
Imagine a world… a world without sadness, a world without responsibilities, a world without pain, without insecurities, without careers, a world that has music, one that has knowledge, one without TV and other connections to the real world… a world that just is your mind and the knowledge of the ‘greats’ to guide it… a world without ‘time’ … A truly ‘timeless’ existence…
Often seems the perfect existence doesn’t it??? Do we ever wonder how the units of time have evolved over the centuries… Even in the comparable 20th century it would take a month to travel across the globe, now only a half a day… a letter took 7 days at the minimum, now there is e-mail… a trunk call needed to be booked a day in advance, now a rickshaw puller has a mobile… Knowledge lay in books which was required to be found, now only a click… The units of measurable time by events are getting smaller and smaller… Expectations increase… does it not worry you if you cannot get through to the ones you love through cell phone??? What is the time frame before you start getting scared… about accidents, about bombs about all the evils your mind can feed you… Have you never wanted to throw away your cell phone and just shut yourself in a room devoid of google talk, devoid of email, just for yourself…
Do we ever see ourselves as we are… for the ‘I’ that is us… Devoid of the ‘strings’ that are holding up the ‘I’ from all sides lest it fall like a circus tent… Will the ‘I’ ever be strong enough to stand on its own??? Can we ever really know???
Do we ever get to the ‘Self-Actualization’ after satisfying all our other lower needs… Honestly almost all other needs have been degraded to ‘Physiological’ needs by the fast pace of our lives, and yet we have no time for anything else… Can we even allocate 15 mins to ourselves… and ‘I’ mean ‘ourselves’ in a day without wondering about the ‘strings’ in our lives…
Can we ever be free is the next question??? That’s the only question the movie really tries to answer… The truth ‘Yes’ and ‘No’… You can be free if you want, till you realize everything about the ‘strings’ was more beautiful that this ‘freedom’… yes you learnt the truths of life that you would never have learnt otherwise, but only to lead you to a greater attachment… that of the realization that having attachments and strings are the only way to be happy…
What makes us happy??? “that one face in the dark”, that one piece of soundtrack that makes you remember her, the fact that your grandfather recovered from a serious disease, that your father got promoted, that your mother was praised for her remarkable cooking, that your sister found the right guy, that your friends waited for you, that there are people who care, there are strong strings to hold you up like that circus tent…
This is life… Before taking these attachments for granted we should once go through a ‘free’ phase with just the ‘I’ before it leads us to the inevitable truth, “HAPPINESS IS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED”…
