out there

Sean Penn is making a movie of John Krakauer's book Into the Wild, a haunting account of a young man's idealistic, inspired retreat from society into the wilds of Alaska in 1992. I'm looking forward to the film very much, as I too read Krakauer's book twice, making a rather frightening connection with Alexander Supertramp as I found my own love of nature. I know several people who had the same experience.

My only hope is that the film conveys something of what it feels like to need the outdoors, the very real emotional condition that can only be settled by staggering beauty and original experience. Christopher McCandless wasn't a freak or a recluse. Yes, he went further out there than most of us, but people do the same thing on their own terms every day.