Archive for March 2012
[14 June 2010]
Two days ago I finally finished reading Jon Krakauer’s Into The Wild. I read the first five or six chapters at a bookstore in Driggs, Idaho; I finished reading it here at the public library in Dubois, Wyoming. I liked the book a lot. Even though, the death of Chris McCandless was a tragedy, I believe that the two years of his life before his death were redeeming. He experienced more in two years than most people experience in a lifetime. He lived “deliberately” as Henry David Thoreau would have said.
Krakauer writes extensively on his own life and experiences. Krakauer was trying to draw a parallel between his strained relationship with his dad and Chris McCandless’ difficult relationship with Walt McCandless. When McCandless found out about his dad’s other wife and children, it seemed like he had been living a lie–maybe McCandless felt he was illegitimate: it wounded him deeply. This deep wounding partly drove him into the wild, onto the edge, the fringes of society.
The main reason McCandless hitchhiked, rode freight trains and ended up in the wilderness of Alaska was to prove to himself that he could survive on his own. Krakauer writes of his own mountain climbing experiences; he was young and he wanted to prove to himself that he could climb the mountain and survive some near-death experiences.
At first glance, I thought, how does mountain climbing compare with hitchhiking? Isn’t it much more dangerous to climb mountains than to hitchhike? At second glance, people die climbing mountains and people die hitchhiking the highways of the world. Mountain climbers explore and hitchhikers explore: they explore new geographical territory and terrain and they explore their own limits in difficult environments.
McCandless was obviously a very well-read young man. I liked the quotes of various writers at the beginning of each chapter in Into The Wild. McCandless left a deep and lasting impression on many people in his travels. Ron Franz, the old guy McCandless met in southern California, was especially touched by his life. I don’t see any evidence that McCandless had a relationship with Jesus Christ, but he did believe in God.
When a man of ninety-five dies, people say that he lived a long life and that it was time for him to go. When a young man like McCandless dies at the age of twenty-four, we say it was a tragedy that he died so young. Tragedy is in the eye of the beholder. Yes, I would rather that McCandless had survived his ordeal in the Alaskan wilderness, but he lived more in twenty-four years than some people would live in two hundred years. People have and will learn from McCandless’ life and death. It is not how long you live your life, but it is the quality of the life you lived that is important.
People will be reading and writing about McCandless’ life for years to come. I saw the film Into The Wild for the first time last summer; the cinematography is beautiful—I liked the movie a lot. The hitchhiking scenes in the movie reminded me of my own hitchhiking experiences: the people you meet on the road, sleeping in the desert, the odd jobs you get to make a little money. I may have hitchhiked more miles than McCandless, but he rode more freight trains than I ever will.
I was hitchhiking through Belle Fourche, South Dakota a couple of years ago and this lady picked me up. She told me that she and her boyfriend picked up McCandless while he was hitchhiking through South Dakota back in 1992.
I believe the Lord wanted me to read Into The Wild for a reason. There are similarities and differences between my life and McCandless’ life. I did a lot of exploratory hitchhiking back in 1986 and 1987, but since 1996, my hitchhiking has been God’s will for my life—this is my work: obeying the Lord on the road.
Genesis 47: 9: “And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”
Jacob’s pilgrimage ended when he was one hundred and forty-seven years old (Genesis 47: 28); Chris McCandless’ pilgrimage ended when he was twenty-four; I am still a pilgrim on this earth.
“When the Stranger says: ‘What is the meaning of this city?
Do you huddle close together because you love each other?’
What will you answer? ‘We all dwell together
To make money from each other’? or ‘This is a community’?
And the Stranger will depart and return to the desert.
O my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger,
Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.”
–T.S. Eliot
Matthew 8: 20: “And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”
Chris McCandless Revisited
A Critical Review of Into the Wild
Fairbanks Bus 142
Into the Wild (2007) (Tragedy, Epiphany and Closure)
Into the Ordinary
Into the Steel
Into the Foolishness of God
Chris McCandless on 20/20 (1997)
The Wild Truth by Carine McCandless
Krakauer + “Supertramp” + “Grizzly Man”
The Life of a Hobo
Stobe the Hobo
Thursday 4th October
“. . .Three miles on we cross another narrow strip or bulb of grass running for S. to N. similar to the one where we camped except in this there is a fine clear small stream running north in a black mossy bed Massacre Creek–in the other no water ran. Wells supplied water there in wet swampy places for watering cattle and some good grass in season:–two miles ahead Emigrant Spring they say there is grass, where we will stop before entering on a desert of 16 or 18 miles they say–but I will report when I see.
“2 log chains, lots of burnt wagon irons, ox yokes, rings & staples, a fine iron jack with teeth and wheels for greasing wagons–the wood burnt. The road goes N.N.W. down the bulb of valley–(another not so much travelled passes across over the sage desert N.W. but we should come to more grassland where we are going to.)
“Down the valley a short way a dead horse. Dead ox No. 3–Ground strewed thick with stones of black bottle glass but not in the strath or valley. In 1/4 of mile we leave the strath and travel to the west among the barren sage. In this part of the valley 5 wagons which (with?) rims and all the iron &ceteras of wagons and scythe snath. Almost all the wood burnt up except the snath and a wagon tongue, old riding saddle and other things, but have not time to examine and record. ____hind wagon wheel hoops are piled one above the other, and all the ____iron carefully gathered and piled in the middle of them.
“After leaving the strath of the valley the road take to the S.W. up a low hill and soon joins that which went straight forward avoiding some small hilly places. After travelling over this rolling or rather kind of hilly country 2 miles further we came to a wet spot Emigrant Springs where there are wells dug 1 or 2 feet deep. We will camp here and let our cattle recruit on what grass they can find. I can see none but they say there is some a little way off.
“A grave ‘Dan Wheeler a coloured man; died Sept. 23d 1849’–dead oxen No. 5.–Came up here with some of our old road acquaintances.
“This morning we poured the coffee off from the dregs and sweetened it all before commencing breakfast so that no one got more sugar than another; a plan, which if it had been adopted from the beginning, I believe our sugar would have lasted till this time. There is a fellow in our co. which I recollect of being in the habit of taking three times as much as was actually necessary for a fair sweetning and many others which took it lavishly–and when I saw it going so wastefully, I did the same; although I don’t like either tea or coffee very sweet.”
Friday 5th Oct
“Thermometer at sun rise 18 above zero, or 14 below freezing. The grave, of Dan Wheeler, is what in this wilderness is called a cache.–French for a hiding place. It contains hid the articles of an entire wagon taken to pieces and carefully packed away–besides many other things that the owners could not take along with them. This is certified by some of my old road acquaintances who were camped here and saw it done. These wagons with my acquaintances are still here. About 1/4 of a mile ahead the same operation was going on yesterday before my eyes, by another wagon party. It will perhaps be finished today, and the men are going to Pack–so they call it. Many of the larger graves we have lately passed are doubtless caches . . .”
_____
In the spring of 2009, I hitchhiked from Wyoming and helped John and Susie brand their calves near Massacre Creek; it is about 36 miles east of Cedarville, California in the state of Nevada. John and Susie pronounce it “massa-kree”. They call this part of the country the California Outback; it is high desert ranch country near the Warner Mountains. Cedarville is 4600 feet in elevation.
Branding Calves and the California Outback
Fixing Fence and Emigrant Trail
“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
The inner freedom from the practical desire,
The release from action and suffering, release from the inner
And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded
By a grace of sense, a white light still and moving.”
“Burnt Norton”
–T.S. Eliot
No Shame in Stillness
Dreams from the LORD 2003-2006
17 December 2006
Yesterday I hitchhiked from Elko, Nevada through Salt Lake City to Evanston, Wyoming on I-80. The two guys that took me to Evanston from Coalville, Utah bought me a meal at the Flying-J Truck Stop. From there I walked into town and checked my e-mail at the library. I then walked three miles north of town and found a pickup camper to sleep in. I believe it got down to 0 degrees F last night. It was also very windy; I am sure the wind chill factor was around -20 degrees F. Some snow even blowed into the camper. I stayed warm. (I think it is kind of humorous how the Lord always finds places for me to sleep.)
Last night, as I slept in the camper, I had a very vivid dream concerning the destruction of Las Vegas. I am guessing that an hour or so before this dream, I was attacked by Satan as I was sleeping. I was dreaming and in the dream I was walking down this street when all of a sudden I was tackled and thrown to the ground by a powerful, unseen force. This force or evil presence threw me down and beat me up pretty good—it even tried to pull the hair off of my head. When I woke up, I was still paralyzed by this evil presence and it was beating me up—the pain was real. The evil presence finally left and I went back to sleep.
Later on that night I had another dream and in this dream I was in a city square with hills all around it. It looked like a European city during the Middle Ages. There were many people in the city square. I was walking around with several friends. Then I saw the Pope (he looked like Pope Benedict—the present Pope) dressed in a white robe and wearing a white cap. My friends and myself walked up to the Pope and I told him that Las Vegas was going to be destroyed. Then the Pope got this surprised look on his face and started to point at my friends and me and said, “I haven’t seen you in church (which meant they didn’t go to a Roman Catholic church).” I then rebuked the Pope and told him that these people go to Christian churches. The Pope then got all bent out of shape and walked away.
I then separated myself from my Christian friends and walked through the town square. Then this woman yelled at me, “Shut up, Tim!” I walked past these Swiss Guards (that are used at the Vatican in Rome) (maybe I was in Rome) who were wearing funny-looking, striped uniforms and armed with swords. They were doing some outlandish rituals and I asked, “Why are you doing such ridiculous rituals?” and “Why are you doing such stupid @#!*% ?”
I walked away from the city square and the crowds of people and walked to the top of this hill overlooking the city. I looked in the direction of Las Vegas (it was on the side of the hill just opposite of where I was at) and all of a sudden the ground began to rumble and shake. I looked at Las Vegas as the earthquake swallowed it up. The cities and towns next to Las Vegas weren’t even touched. When Las Vegas was destroyed, it looked like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle was removed and shoved underneath the rest of the puzzle. Then these huge rocks fell from heaven and pummeled the ground where Las Vegas used to be. I then raised my right arm in triumph and shouted, “Praise the Lord! Las Vegas is destroyed! Las Vegas is destroyed! Thank you, Lord! Las Vegas is destroyed! Las Vegas is destroyed!” Then the dream ended.
_____
Psalm 18: 7: “Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.”
.
The Eruption of Mount Pelee, St. Pierre, Martinique, 1902
Daniel McGuire’s Vision: Las Vegas Earthquake
Goodbye, Las Vegas
Pope Benedict and the Las Vegas Earthquake Dream
Earthquake Evangelism: the San Francisco Quake & the Azusa Revival
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
Las Vegas Earthquake Imminent?
John Kilpatrick New Madrid Earthquake
Los Angeles Earthquake Dream
Photos of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
More Dreams of Las Vegas in a Major Earthquake & Ruins
Dreams from the LORD 2007-2010
21 December 2010
.
Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise, directed by Steven Spielberg. Precog. Ann Lively. Visions. Dreams come true. John Anderton. New eyes. A prophet’s eyes. Prevision. Las Vegas Earthquake.
.
___
.
Dreams from the LORD 2011-2017
30 September 2017
.
Last night I had a dream where this man walked up to me and gave me a piece of paper. There was a message on the piece of paper. The message said: “see ‘las vegas earthquake'”.
.
The Road 