What would have happened....?

I found very interesting the story of Gene Rosellini (a.k.a Mayor of Hippie Cove) in Chapter 8. He, like Supertramp, had a desire to live out in the wild and be one with nature. His story, I found, is very familiar to that of Alex's and unfortunately ends fataly and nothing really was achieved.

Gene was born into a well-to-do family and during his young years he had been a good athlete and a brilliant student (not to mention that he had a 4.0 in high school and college and attended both University of Washington and Seattle University). He loved to read, practiced yoga and was an expert in marital arts. In his school studies he accumulated hundreds of credit hours and did not care about having a degree. He said he saw no reason to.....sound familiar?

The interesting thing about this man was that he left all that he had and headed north. He was interested in knowing if it was possible for man to be independent from technology. He had crazy ideas and wondered if humans could go back to sustaining life like the early humans from the mammoth era and wanted to find out if humans had moved too far from its roots to survive without "gunpowder". He, like Alex, dined on berries, roots, and hunted game and he excercised compulsively whenever he wasn't occupied.

His "experiment" surprinsingly lasted more than a decade!! Eventually he found the answer to his question that inspired all of these actions. He wrote to a friend..."...eventually came a setting face-to-face with pure reality. I learned that it is not possible for human beings as we know them to live off the land."

I wonder if Alex ever knew about this man......maybe he did and did not believe his conclusion. Or maybe he never heard of him and wanted the same adventures that came from his heart. But either way, I can't help but notice that this man who lived in the wild for more than a decade realised that it is not possible....it was possible for him obviously...at least for as long as he was out there. But not for humanity. So now i think of McCandless....what were his last thoughts before he died? Or when he found himself running out of food, cold, and lonely, did he start to think things over?

Rosellini was discovered lying face down on the floor of his shack in November 1991 with a knife through his heart.....this was self-inflicted....suicide. Nobody knew why he did this or will never know.

McCandless died of starvation. But here's something I would like you to think about......would Alex have come to this conclusion if he would have survived? Think about it, Rosellini lasted more than a decade in the wild.....he had enough of it. So much he committed suicide.