I just watched it, and found it to be one of the most thought provoking films I’ve seen in a long time. It’s based on a true story.
Young Christopher McCandless graduates from Emory University, with top grades and a bright future ahead of him, but decides he doesn’t want to pursue a traditional career, or even law school at Harvard. He gives away his $24,000 in savings to charity and sets out on a lone odyssey to find true happiness.
Raised in a turbulent home, and by parents who loved him, but didn’t teach him what love was, and perhaps were not equipped to, Chris saw no reason to stay connected with his family and be part of their lives. He deserts them, justified by the belief that they deserted him in many ways.
While hitchhiking across the country, he forms some touching and caring relationships with a few people along the way. But he is determined to go to Alaska, and live in the wilderness on his own. Relationships are not what people need, he tells an older gentleman whom he befriended.
Christopher figures he can find happiness and completeness in the wild where there is no competition from daily demands of work, earn, buy and pay.
He makes into the deep outback of the Alaska wilderness, alone, and finds an old bus furnished with a woodstove to camp out in. He’s in wilderness heaven! Over the next three months he revels in the pristine purity and majesty of his surroundings, makes notes in his diary and ponders life lessons.
When it’s time to leave, he discovers a stream he crossed in the spring has become a huge river that he cannot cross. He’s stuck. He cannot return. He goes back to the bus. He has no food. He is starving, and in desperation begins living off of plants. But unfortunately, he eats a poisonous plant, and falls very ill. In his great trial of suffering, alone with no one to help, and in lonely circumstances of his own creating, some life lessons come into focus.
Among those lessons, he jots into his diary the words,
“Happiness is not real, unless shared.”
I’m jolted by his observation. It’s almost exactly what Mary Baker Eddy wrote over 100 years ago, when she penned,
“Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it.” Science and Health
I loved Chris' revelation! It rang so true for me.
Happiness is not a selfish enterprise. It is not something we find alone. Yes, it is spiritual, and we find it with God, but it helps to know that it’s also spiritual to love others freely and share the joys of Life with them. A spiritual life is not a materially lonely life. A spiritual life is an activity of engagement, discourse and spiritual discussion. Christopher did not find this in the wilderness, and his solo flight away from all of society left him lonelier than ever.
Some people have thought Mary Baker Eddy lived a lonely life because she stayed home oftentimes, penning her works and praying for the world. But this belief couldn’t be further from the truth. She was constantly engaged with citizens of the world. She ran a household of up to 25 staffers. She answered dozens of letters each day, with the help of secretaries. Eddy was constantly engaged with the public, people and thinkers around the world. She was an excellent model, for her time, on how one could find the time and space needed to grow spiritually as individuals, but also still be actively engaged with neighbors.
Aside from that diversion in discussion...
The ending of the movie leaves the viewer greatly sobered by Christopher’s experience. He comes to know himself better, and instead of mentally running away from everything he dislikes in the world, he begins to acknowledge the good already in place.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget Chris’ words,
“Happiness is not real, unless shared.”It captured the essence of my whole experience with Christian Science. I can’t keep its joys to myself, for if I do, they die. But when I share, they come alive!
Perhaps, that’s what this blog is all about…
