Sean Penn’s ‘Into The Wild’

Sean Penn’s Into The Wild is a film that’s flawed by pretension, but nonetheless did speak to me, as it probably would a lot of young people who sometimes feel overwhelmed by modern life. Over the last year I have grown more and more hermitised and the idea of rejecting all of it for a great solo adventure, as Christopher McCandless did whose story the film is based on, is seductive.

It’s the same song that’s called discoverers, gypsies, hippies, twisted souls, the religious, artists and backpackers for years and years. It’s the feeling that one never truly knows oneself or true life until they are on the road, and away from everyone they know.

For the first time since I was 18 I no longer live in the city, but in Sydney’s West-Northern suburbs where you can live quietly and anonymously. After years of being saturated in Sydney nightlife, city living and the community of the local music scene, and following one year of completely embracing the noise, smells and sweat of other great cities like London and New York … I find myself drifting away.

And of course in today’s world getting away requires a virtual disconnection as well as a physical one. I rarely talk to people on the phone or even have my mobile on. I don’t have a Facebook or MySpace account. And I am completely estranged from the music scene – I don’t know, or care, or check what’s happening or who’s who. (There are some exceptions but as a whole I am far less “visible”.)

The only thing that pulls me to the city is work and friends; both of which I appreciate and are necessary but can be a source of pain to me. I still feel my soul crowded by the impurity of society; the status, the celebrity, the endless stuff, the lame desire, the fraudulence, the pain. And I find refuge in my home when the “real world” doesn’t impinge; My mother thinks nothing more than tending her garden. My brother and sister are both young and not yet damaged by greed and paranoia.

In fact a love for my family is the one outstanding thing that divides me from Christopher (or at least the film version). Love is the most beautiful thing and only truth in life. And the pure love you have for those you would sacrifice everything for, is what you must use to navigate life in the world. That love should not only be an inspiration, but a defense and medication in combating life’s travails. That love keeps you honest and true and must be used to generate love for all others.

The world is harsh but you must live in it. It is indulgent, and as with Christopher fatal, not to.