o love nature and a desire to be free--if in such a place a man cannot be simply a man, his own self--there will never be such a place and time of individuality. If one cannot find an identity--his true self-- here, he will never find it.It is an interesting concept, nature and freedom. For nature allows us to escape from our time--our societal-imposed schedule, our time clock and switch to nature's clock--an interesting concept, for, if anything, it restricts us in many different ways: sundown signifies sleep and cold, rain shows us unavoidable wetness and misery, and dawn is a time of awakening. Thus, in some ways, it is a restriction. Spiritually, however, it is a freedom through connection with nature--going at nature's pace, at a NATURAL pace, not at our own artificially-created, societal-imposed pace. Nature also signifies another sort of intellectual freedom: the freedom to be yourself, the freedom from having to play a role. And in this way, nature is an ultimate test: without the cell phones and guns, the air conditioning and gasoline-powered conveniences, the individually-wrapped Twinkie bars and packaged water, are we strong enough ourselves to survive within the nature without all these conveniences we've created for ourselves? It is a test of worthiness of our existence on this planet, worthiness of claiming ourselves as a part of nature. Chris showed us, and the nature, that some of us are at least strong enough to attempt such an existence, to undergo such trial: he tried proving to the nature that we, as people, are worthy of such a claim.Chris, however, did not set out to prove anything to nature, or really, to anyone. Chris' journey was a spiritual one, and a selfish one (so selfish, in fact, that he did not care about the effect of his actions on others, such as his family). Chris did not raise pledges and donate that to charity (although he did give away his possessions and savings in an effort to rid himse...
