Letter from Chris McCandless

Ron, I really enjoy all the help you have given me and the times that we spent together.  I hope that you will not be too depressed by our parting.  It may be a very long time before we see each other again.  But providing that I get through this Alaskan Deal in one piece you will be hearing from me again in the future.  I'd like to repeat the advice I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt.  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 damaging 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.  If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy.  But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.

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But for some reason incomprehensible to me you wanted nothing but to bolt for home as quickly as possible, right back to the same situation which you see day after day after day.  I fear you will follow this same inclination in the future and thus fail tot discover all the wonderful things that God has placed around us to discover.  Don't settle down and sit in one place.  Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon.  You are still going to live a long time, Ron, and it would be a shame if you did not take the opportunity to revolutionize your life and move into a an entirely new realm of experience.

You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships.  God has placed it all around us.  It is in everything and anything we might experience.  We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.

My point is that you do not need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind of light in your life.  It is simply waiting out there for you to grasp it, and all you have to do is reach for it.  The only person you are fighting is yourself and your stubbornness to engage in new circumstances.

Ron, I really hope that as soon as you can you will get out of Salton City, put a little camper on the back of your pickup, and start seeing some of the great work that God has done here in the American West.  You will see things and meet people and there is much to learn from them.  And you must do it economy style, no motels, do your own cooking, as a general rule spend as little as possible and you will enjoy it much more immensely.  I hope that the next time I see you, you will be a new man with a vast array of new adventures and experiences behind you.  Don't hesitate or allow yourself to make excuses.  Just get out and do it.  Just get out and do it.  You will be very, very glad that you did.

Take Care Ron,
Alex



(Excerpt from the letter from Chris McCandless aka "Alexander Supertramp" to Ronald Franz from the novel by Jon Krakauer, Into The Wild.)

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This passage really affected me.  I think if you simply replace Ron, with your own name you can see the universal application and perhaps better capture the full import of his posthumous wisdom.