I love my child. But I regret having her at various times. I am selfish, because even though it was my actions and my choice to have her and she didn’t ask to be here, I think of the mistake I made and how having her means I can’t see and explore the world and live the life I want. But that might just be an excuse, making her the scapegoat for my own failure to take risks and really live….

Christopher McCandless was a real American hero.  Possibly a little crazy.  Fatally naive, but a hero who recognized the futility and suffocation of American (particularly middle class) life.  Materialism and capitalism run amok.  He upheld his morals of not being a slave to things and of freedom and nonconformity.  Life in America is a trap!  Don’t fall in!  We don’t need cell phones we can receive email on 24 hours a day and cars that know where we are at all times!  We don’t have to be slaves to our hair coloring and nail-filing and tanning appointments!  Into The Wild forces me to remember what rings true to me:  the value of visceral experience, self-determination, respect, exhilaration.  Remembering that life is not about being ruled by the Court of Public Opinion.  That is a facade.  That is fake and unimportant and a trick.  Everyone thinks everyone else is judging them, when in fact, everyone is judging themselves mercilessly, wasting time and precious life.  Not really living.  A paralysis of the soul.  Self-induced.  Terrified of the unknown, of uncertainty and of risk and of failure.  Buried in regret and guilt over that regret and self-recrimination over the guilt!  I am slowly marching, numb and defeated, to an uncertain death.

97.1 The Eagle will announce today that The Russ Martin Show is back on the air!!!