Fantasy and reality

I am writing a blog after a long long time... Well, it is kind of difficult to decide of which thoughts I should pen down in my diary and what should I write here..

There is a nice subject I found to resume my blog writing.. Fantasies of youngsters.. I recently came across this book called "Into the wild" by Jon Krakauer. A book about a guy of almost my age who 'walks into the wild..' to have a better conversation with himself. He comes to a tragic end in his 'Great Alaskan Odyssey' which allowed his critics to curse him to be a feckless slacker, adrift and baffled, racked by existential despair. To the contrary, as the author researches and puts forth from this book:

Christopher J. McCandless's life hummed with meaning and purpose. The meaning he wrested from the existence lay beyond the comfortable path: McCandless distrusted the value of things that come easily. He demanded much of himself - more, in the end, than he could deliver.

No wonder he could survive on minimum resources for 112 days in Alaska.

Well, surprisingly enough, I was reading a lot of myself in this book, in this guy and other adventurous people mentioned in this book.. I am sure many of the young people will feel the same while reading the book.. But of all romantic people, McCandless was on a spiritual quest. Simply the way he was seeking answers was his own way.. Kind of reflecting the wilderness originated by the passions and longings of youth..

I liked a few paragraphs from the my read.. They are mostly excerpts from the books McCandless was carrying with him in the wild..

It is true that many creative people fail to make mature relationships, and some are extremely isolated. It is also true that in some instances, trauma, in the shape of early separation or bereavement, has steered the potentially creative person toward developing aspects of his personality which can find fulfillment in comparative isolation. (But this does not mean that solitary, creative pursuits are themselves pathological...)
[A]voidance behavior is a response designed to protect the infant from behavioral disorganization. If we transfer this concept to adult life, we can see than an avoidant infant might very well develop into a person whose principal need was to find some kind of meaning and order in life which was not entirely, or even chiefly, dependent upon interpersonal relationship.
--Anthony Storr, Solitude: A return to the self.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, an obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board. The hospitality was as cold as the ices.
--Henry David Thoreau,
Walden, or Life in the woods.

For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.
--G.K.Chesterton

Now what is history? It is the centuries of systematic explorations of the riddle of death, with a view to overcoming death. That's why people discover mathematical infinity and electromagnetic waves, that's why they write symphonies. Now, you can't advance in this direction without a certain faith. You can't make such discoveries without spiritual equipment. And the basic elements of this equipment are in the Gospels. What are they? To begin with, love of one's neighbor, which is the supreme form of vital energy. Once it fills the heart of man it has to overflow and spend itself. And then the two basic ideals of modern man - without them he is unthinkable - the idea of free personality and the idea of life as sacrifice.
--Boris Pasternak,
Doctor Zhivago

I don't understand much about sacrifice as yet.. But this book makes me rethink about my fantasy land I had been dreaming about since childhood.. I used to long for a small equipped place in deep forest with ample supply of food. A well connectivity to the outside world with a cell phone say and just me alone in the company of lots and lots of books.. Well, now I think about this to be a sheer fantasy. Reality is, I have to live in this world amongst humans, not off the land...