aLEXANDER sUPERTRAMP

“Your wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from human relationships. Gods placed it all around us, its in everything, its in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at those things.” – Christopher Johnson McCandless

If there’s one thing in life I’ve always visualized myself doing, one thing I’ve always spurred myself to do but know I never will; it is to lose touch with all things material, look only to the unworldly and mission off ‘into the wild’.

Christopher Mccandless did it.  

A kid follows his dream. His dream kills him…

I only discovered the story of ‘Alexander Supertramp’ through the film “Into The Wild”, a book turned movie flick, based on a young troubled soul “running against the forces of darkness…all the evil in the world, all the hatred”, to discover himself amongst the Alaskan wilderness and to be as far away from civilization as he could get. Of course, with little experience or knowledge of the wilderness, Chris only lasted four months, until his body was found in an abandoned bus, weighing a disgusting thirty kg’s. Along with the mephitic body odor, the boy lay next to a journal, documenting 113 days of his life in the wild, many a cry for help.

The amount of bravery one needs to pull from under their skin to commit. To actually get up, and leave. Depart from everything secure and safe for a life of inadvertent spontaneous surprise day after the next. Only a loony could do that. Chris was a loony.

The film itself plays to the exact recordings of Chris’ time spent out in Alaska. It’s true to his journal, and accurate to the relationships he made along the way. He truly was a ‘supertramp’ as he proudly nicknamed himself.

Emile Hirsch who plays Christopher, plays his character to the exact expressions that Chris had. He mirrors Chris and who he was. You see fearlessness in Emile’s eyes, and cold black fear in those same eyes a while on. I was fooled into thinking that life could be that simple if you were selfish enough to let it be. Why not? He left his family with nothing but a worthless note. He burned his money, dumped his car and guessed which wild berries were safe to eat. Couldn’t I too?

He had a normal, if not better upbringing than I did. He finished school with top marks, graduated with a degree and made his father proud. What made him different to me?

“The freedom and simple beauty is too good to pass up...” – Christopher Johnson McCandless

I cant help but fear the personal chill attached to my neck at the thought that while Chris was discovering his weakness and crying himself to sleep in regret of his decision, I was only two, playing outside in a splash pool in the summer of April 1992.

“S.O.S. I need help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out. I am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless”.

While he was dying, I was learning to walk.

“Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause "the West is the best." And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild. - Alexander Supertramp May 1992” – written in his journal.

Ps: If you’d like to know more, visit this website for pic’s and the full story. 

http://www.christophermccandless.info/bio.html

 

yOU dON'T hAVE tO wEAR sHOES hERE

I don’t like wearing shoes; I scarcely do. My backyard is a vegetable and herb garden and animals light up my spirit. I’m also not a hillbilly hippie, but I do prefer not to wear shoes, so anywhere in the valley is the perfect place to bare your toes, no matter what the weather.

Sunday was mother’s day. We all went crazy didn’t we? Shopping malls were infested with crazy people, restaurants were all on a spinning ball, and kiddies were dragging themselves along to please mama bear. We decided as a family, that this year we’d spend time together and have an easygoing unplanned day. We gradually ended up in the best spot Cape Town has to offer, Imhoff Farm Village.

If you like the idea of camels chilling on a field of grass on entry, and a farmyard of interesting quirky animals all happy and ready to great you, you’ll love that you can lose yourself in the cutest deli of cheese and olives, fruit and veg available in the restaurant overlooking the wild horses. You’ll fit right in.

I’ve never felt so at home. Like I could park off on the bench and wake up hours later, with not a worry in the world. Your kids are provided with endless entertainment, yes, there’s a snake park where they can touch and hold snakes. Leave them there and go sit in the tea garden, just remember to take them home later when you leave. There isn’t a stay over night facility.

When the weather is great, Imhoff village is the place to offload your family and arrange for a meeting time and spot for later. It’s a place that you can explore for hours. Look through the arts and crafts stores, the art gallery, go for a ride on the camels or just stretch out your legs over a hot cup of tea. Do what you want. That’s the right words.

tHE dARK sIDE

Most of us have somewhat an understanding of death; what it is, what it means. We don’t fear it. At least not until we come very close to it.

Our perception of death is different to what death really is. We only know it as a trifling of hurt in comparison to the lifetime of hollowness it is. Films and books will always hide from you, the months or years we cry ourselves to sleep, despite the fact that we graduated, got a promotion or met the man of our dreams. Those things do not fill the hole. Once you lose a loved one, a sister, a parent or child, you cross over into the opaque world. It can only then be seen in your eyes. 

I’ve met with death before. It’s a cold demon you never want to cross paths with, but one that you eventually will. It takes what it wants, when it wants it and doesn’t give a dam for the pain it causes to the world.

A few weeks ago, I listened to a radio ad for Red Cross. It’s a real life phone call between a paramedic and a mother who’s just found her thirteen-month-old baby lifeless and blue. Hearing the distressed mother try to resuscitate her child is the most chilling thing you could possibly listen to. It brings you very close to the reality of death. It will creep under your skin and give you a taste of fear.
But. It will also have you think about taking a first aid course, because you never know when you might need to save a life the way this brave mother did.

Chills*

gIGGLE mE tO tHE pAST

With such excitement over the long weekend my family and I decided to go to Shelly Point just a short drives distance from Langebaan, up the West Coast. The weather sported buckets of rain and had us trapped inside for two days, encouraging us to bond as a family over board games and old DVD’s. ‘Old’ is accurate. From behind the dusty television set, a copy of Leon Schuster’s “The Millennium Menace” was our source of entertainment. And man did we crack it!

If you don't know Leon Schuster, there's something wrong with you. Every South African knows of this Afrikaans speaking, humour filled white guy, that masks himself as every race and gender. He's hilarious. He's a professional con-artist so to say, someone that thrives on pranking innocent South Africans in public places, every time to produce a massive smile on their face once his identity is revealed.

To look back on his first ever skits was a trip down memory lane. Its what we loved as children and it brought the family together in erupts of laughter. It was the talk of the western cape, this Leon dude wat maak ons lag, lekker!

The most memorable skit in this old but always fresh movie is when they pretend to be shooting a commercial for ‘Rainbow Yogurt’. They pull a man up who clearly loves the camera, and have him practice lines, his attempt to entice his audience into this yummy tasting yogurt. When they send him off for make-up, they fiddle with his yogurt, adding Tabasco sauce, vinegar and a bunch of other hot ingredients. Let me not spoil the rest. Watch out for the last guy, it's brilliant!