Into the wild soundtrack

In 1990 the story of a young man began, who challenged himself against an intransigent wilderness where convenience of provisions and the possibility of rescue practically did not exist.

Chris wanted to escape the hypocritical and fake world, which was always a part of the world that surrounded him. He saw himself as a victim of a privileged society, and instead wanted go back to the basics of nature.

Under the name “Alexander Supertramp” he went on a two year cross- country odyssey, which led him from Atlanta to Arizona, down to Mexico, from California’s Salton Sea to South Dakota, many countless places in between and finally to Alaska.

He alternated between working and living with no money, sometimes successfully foraging food. But mostly he was aided by people, he met on his journey with food, clothes or even with a place to sleep. Whenever the human contact overwhelmed him, the desire of loneliness grew. Chris managed to survive for a long time with hardly any gear, no preparation and no funds. He cheated death a couple of times, since he survived a flash flood and canoeing down remote parts of the Colorado River.

Eventually he hitchhiked to the north of Alaska to reach the heydays of his trip- living isolated far away from any civilization. From now on, he was completely left to his own devices. The only things he carried in his backpack, were some pounds of rice, several books, some camping gear and a rifle. After a while hiking along the Stampede Trail, Chris, totally thrilled, found an abandoned bus, which became his “accommodation” for the next and likewise last upcoming four months.  Due to his inexperience as a hunter, Chris just managed to forage for plants and some small game.

He recorded the forces of nature and his process of self-transformation in a journal, which covered a total of 112 days in the wildness of Alaska. The entries range between high euphoria and grim frustration and distress.

After three months he decided to leave, but found his path blocked by the Teklanika River, which was impossible to cross at that time of the year. Due to the fact, that the only map he possessed, Chris gave away, he did not know of an alternative path not far away.

Chris had no other choice than to go back and let nature go its way by starving to death, since he had no food, life will, and power left. His body was found two weeks later, on Sep. 6 in 1992, weighing just around 30 kg.

The biographer Jon Krakauer wrote down Chris´s Story and based on that book Sean Penn´s film “into the wild” was released in 2007. Both made Chris to a heroic figure for many and his path to a “pilgrimage” for many adventurers.

Nevertheless many also criticize the exaggerated way of romanticizing, in which Chris has been described. Even though his spirits and thoughts of life can be inspiring, his choice of not taking essential gear like a compass and a map, along with his sparely preparation is seen as tragic, idiotic and perilous.

When I was thinking about my topic for this blog, I immediately had Chris in mind, because his story is an excellent example of a person, who pushed himself to the extreme limit, even though he did not survive it. As for me, the more I researched about Alexander Supertramp, the more clueless I got about his motives. I agree that his behavior in the final stages was driven by stupidity. Although his death might have been reprehensible and absurd, in the end you deeply care about his destiny. He is a great example of someone who pushed himself a bit too far over the edge by underestimating the risks.

What do you think of him and the way his story was told in the movie?

Liang Liang (an alias) is hoisting the National Flag in the school´s courtyard. His teacher Wang Lijun is helping him, since no other pupils are around. Liang is attending the first one- pupil school in China, since he was rejected from his village school in Baoshan, because he is HIV positive.

The nine year old is carrying this deadly virus since birth. His father infected himself while working abroad; he was the first HIV- carrier in China’s northeast province of Liaoning. Unsuspecting he transmitted the virus to his wife.
His parents sent their son to the public school of Baoshan, but they had to take him out after only 3 days, because he was totally disliked. These were sad days for Liang Liang, since no one talked or played with him. Most parents even dragged their children out of school and the ones, who did come to school, met him with hatred and ignorance.
All attempts of the local health department to persuade the parents were in vain, since the fear of an infection is bigger than the necessary tolerance in such a poor educated province.

Liang`s parents demanded his right to go to school and so the government had to open a school just for him. He is taught by a 60year old retired cultural worker, who teaches him all the required subjects.Due to his negative health condition he is just allowed to study half the day. After school his teacher plays ping pong with him, basketball and other activities, which keep him occupied.

No one knows how long he is going to live, since his parents don´t have the necessary funds to pay for required treatments.

From the outside Liang is just a normal child as all the other, but in the inside he is a devastated, lonely child, who suffers more from the social isolation than his bad health conditions. He wants nothing more than to go outside and to play with the other children in the mud.

Liang is such a modest and mature little boy. Comparing our desires to his simple dream makes me feel ashamed. We should appreciate life much more and should not criticize the world around us all the time. A bad grade or a missed opportunity might be fretful, but what matters most in life is health, a loving and caring family, and to appreciate every second of life.

No child deserves to be rejected, because he was born with the life-sentence of HIV. To prevent this, much more needs to be done in the field of education, especially in rural and extremely poor areas. Much more medication needs to be made available, because at the moment around four million children, who could be benefiting from this drug, are not receiving it.

He was born in the USA in 1980 and ever since he was obsessed with activities, which made the adrenaline rushing through his veins.  But nothing ever grabbed him like skiing. From the very first moment, when he was skiing down a mountain with the wind in his face and the sparkling snow all around him, this sport became his first priority. The freedom and unpredictability of the mountains are the things that keep him out there every day, year after year.

Erik Roner started base jumping in 2000 and it didn´t take him long to do both at the same time. Erik was one of the first, who pioneered ski base jumping, skiing down some of the first descents all over the globe. Ski base jumping is where you run down a very steep flank of a hill, ending  in a cliff, which you ski off and devote a parachute in order to land soft at the end of that cliff.

After improving his skills for this insane hybrid sport, Nitro Circus got in touch with him. “Rubberneck”, that´s how he is called among the crew members, became an inherent part of this American television series, shown on MTV, where some guys travelling around the world to perform extremely dangerous und the most unthinkable stunts, which often end in broken bones and stitches.

Until now he was published in over 30 magazines all over the world, participated in many TV shows and featured in at least 10 major skiing movies and productions.  Erik is aided by many sponsors, for instance: Nitro Circus, Hurley, Scoot etc.

Despite his fearlessness, Erik is also known for his positive outlook on life. He is thankful for his family, friends, his Son and even simple things like catching air, down time and snow storms. And because he treasures life so much, he even has the strengths to turn around from a cliff, if he doesn´t have a good feeling, since being scared could impair the performance. What is also important is that he is aware of the danger of this sport. Many people already lost their lives due to reckless behavior, undervaluation of the risks or just because of bad luck.

Erik Roner is a guy, who loves to push himself to the limit and according to that is definitely a risk taker. He is full of adventure, spontaneous and gets a thrill out of the uncertainty and unpredictability of his sports. For him there is nothing better than to follow his passion. But he also knows where to draw the line and because he has been skiing for such a long time, he has the necessary experience to evaluate exposed terrain.

What I like most about him is, that he seems like guy, who is down-to-earth and secondly that he is so passionate about his hobby, that it even thrills me just to look at him talking about his sport. People like him also reveal that following a hobby or being enthusiastic about something can enrich one’s life to a great extent.  Don´t you agree?

At the time she was born, in 1954, blacks and whites were separated from each other, because it was assumed that black people were not as good as white people. They had to use different drinking fountains, had to sit in the back of buses and even had to go to separated schools.

The schools of New Orleans where finally forced to overturn the segregation in 1960, the same year Ruby and some other children took a test to see who would enter a integrated school in next September. Ruby was that smart that she passed the test extremely well and now had the chance to start first grade in William Frantz Public School.

It was a tough decision for her parents, because her father wasn´t fond of her attending an all-white school. He feared that Ruby wouldn´t be able to withstand the hatred and pressure, she would have to deal with. Her mother, on the other side, supported it, because she wanted Ruby to have a better education, a better job and in general a better life than she had. Eventually she convinced her husband and together they did everything to back Ruby up on her hard way.

Her first day at school was awful, even though her mum accompanied her. For the whole day they sat in the office and saw white people in front of the school yelling and shouting nasty things, holding sings full of threats and some parents dragging their kids out of the school building. From that day, Ruby knew that the burden lying on her was heavier than she could have imagined.

She was taught in a different room, on a different floor than the other children and she was not even allowed to play with the other kids during the breaks. Ruby was guarded by soldiers, who protected her. The first year was the hardest, since she and her family were attacked with verbal threats and Rudy´s father even lost his job. Luckily she had a very lovely, supportive and caring teacher- Mrs. Henry, how helped her to survive the difficult time.

But after a while more and more white children started to talk and play with her. At the beginning of the second grade she was fully accepted, there were no protestors, no soldiers and there were even more black children.

Rudy graduated from William Frantz School, attended an integrated high-school, after which she went to a business school to study tourism and travel.  Eventually she married and raised four sons.

Years later she realized the effects of her accomplishment, but also that there is still a long way to go until blacks and whites are treated completely equally. She started to help troubled black kids and even developed the Rudy Bridge Foundation. Ruby is still active and wants to make aware of the importance of education and especially integration of races.

In 1995 the book”The Story of Ruby Bridges” was published, which was the basis for the homonymous movie, made by Disney.

With being one of the first white children to visit an all-white school, she played a big role in the Civil Rights Movement. Ruby helped to make life easier for blacks, her accomplishment was a major step towards integration and equal rights. From now on black children were able to enjoy a better education and opportunities.

Ruby had to go through a very tough time, as a young girl she had to deal with situations, noone ever wants to deal with – racism, hatred and loneliness. But in the end she pulled through and by doing that, she definitely shaped history. Even though she was too young to actively participate in the Civil Rights Movement, with the help of her loving family, friends and teacher, she was a stumbling stone in the process of a better relationship between whites and blacks. Most notably is, that she still fights for her dream.

Freezing temperatures, monster waves, a nearly 100 % injury rate, but the chance of earning a fortune in just a few months – this is the profile of one of the most perilous of all jobs in the world- crab fishing in Alaska.

The waters of Alaska, notably the Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, Bristol Bay and the most popular one the Bering Sea are habitats of rich species of crabs: Tanner, Dungeness and the popular Alaskan King crab.

The prospect of earning US$ 50000 in just 8 weeks is very auspicious and also the reason why so many men accept the challenge to risk their lives. But of course this is just the rosy side of this job. The far side involves fishing in glacial water at freezing temperatures, waves crashing on the deck and trying to shift the enormous crab pots while the ice cold wind is taking the last bit of body heat and power. Danger and the anxiety that this could be the last day on earth accompany the men constantly. Working under these extremely dangerous conditions pushes even the strongest man to the limit. It takes more than courage, a strong heart and an able body to do this job. Most of all they just have to rely on luck.

Even the television business came across this deadly job. The documentary series “The deadliest catch” premiered on the Discovery Channel in 2005. It documents the events on and around the fishing trips in the Bering Sea during the crab seasons. Season 6 is announced for the upcoming year.

One of the main characters is Phil Harris, who took part in the first 4 seasons. Due to a medical condition he was forced to give up his risky job, but he keeps appearing occasionally in some episodes.

Phil Harris, 53, had been in the fishing industry since the tender age of 7. One decade later he started crabbing and at the age of 21 he ran his first boat in the Bering Sea, becoming one of the youngest captains. In 1983 he lost some of his closest friends due to a storm in which their boat capsized and sank. In 1990 Phil became the captain of the “Cornelia Marie”. For 18 years he led his crew, including his two sons Josh and Jake, who worked as deckhands.

Phil lives in Seattle and now enjoys his life cruising on his Harley-Davidson along the highways of Washington.

“Ya gotta be a little bit Twisted to do this job!” says Phil and I think he is right. Why do men put themselves in such a danger just to earn a bigger salary? Why do they run the risk of never ever seeing their families again? Certainly the returns are very tempting, but clearly not the only reason to do this job. One thing is clear, these men want to experience the limit. Maybe they even want to prove themselves to be tougher than other men.

Notably because I can´t understand why they put themselves in such a danger, I honor their courage and their capability of resistance. For me they definitely belong to the line of heroes  for the working day, since without them many people would not know the delicious taste of this delicacy.

Imagine being in crystal clear and calm water at one of the most beautiful beaches on earth. The morning is perfect to surf. While waiting for the next wave to come, you relax on your board with one arm lying on it and the other dangling in the cool water. Suddenly you see a lot of gray, followed by pressure going through your arm, caused by a few fast tugs. The next thing you notice is the water turning deep red, all happening in a few seconds.  That’s how long it took for a shark to bite off your arm.

How would you react? Giving up your passion surfing and never go into the ocean again? Or would you work up all your courage to get on that board again?

Bethany Hamilton was faced with the same situation in 2003, at the age of 13. Like every other morning she and her friends went to the beach of Kauai, Hawaii, when the incomprehensible tragedy happened. But instead of losing her faith and love for surfing, she started to hit the waves again already 3 weeks after the accident.

Bethany was born on Hawaii, at the age of 5 her parents and two brothers, who are passionate surfers as well, taught her how to make waves. Ever since she absolutely loved it! She dreamed of becoming a professional surfer and started to take part in competitions at the age of 8. Bethany was very successful and in 2000 even found a sponsor, Rip Curl, which aided her.

When the accident happened, Bethany managed to stay calm, probably due to the shock.  Her only thought was getting back to the beach as soon as possible. Luckily her friends were there, who helped her to paddle in. While getting back to the beach, negative thoughts, fear and sadness kept coming up in her head, but since she is very religious, she blocked them out with praying.

Later she said: “It’s funny, you would think having your arm bitten off would really hurt. But there was no pain at the time.”

The shark, which bit off her arm, was later caught. Even though it took her arm, she kept her faith and passion.  Just 3 weeks after the incident she wanted to go into the ocean again. The most difficult part for her was to stand up, since she now had just one arm to position herself. After a couple of months she got back to her normal competitive performance. Since then she won many competitions and awards. For instance in 2005 Bethany took 1st place in the NSSA National Championships, a goal she wanted to reach already before the shark attack. Since 2008 she is also competing on the Association of Surfing Professionals World Qualifying Series.

Because she is an inspiration for many people, she was also rewarded with the Teen Choice Award in 1004. Bethany did not let the fear destroying her love for surfing.

Nowadays she is even a little star, since she has her own blog, has been on many TV shows so far , has her own little documentary film and published her book : “Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board”. In fall 2009 the shooting for a movie, telling her incredible comeback story began.

Whatever difficulties you face in your life, take Bethany as a role model of courage, faith and passion. The incident did not stop her eagerness to ride waves, instead it even made her stronger.  As her everyone has a destiny. Everyone has the chance to be happy, we just have to take it.

Her story really inspired me, from now I will try not to let fear preventing me from doing something. Life is too precious, just to waste it with worrying, complaining and being scared.

How would you have reacted in such a situation?

Team Hoyt is a true story of Dick and his disabled Son Rick, who compete together in marathons and triathlons to spread their highly motivational message: “Yes, you can!”

In 1962 Rick was born to Judy and Dick Hoyt. Since his birth Rick suffers from cerebral palsy , because his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and so caused a great loss of oxygen to his brain. The doctors told them, that there is no chance of Rick ever recovering and so little hope of living a “normal” life. They even advised them to put Rick away in a hospital. But Judy and Dick ignored them, because as loving parents would do, they wanted to bring Rick up just as normal as their other two sons.

Even though Rick was unable to walk and speak, his parents took him swimming, bike riding, sledding.  It meant the greatest pleasure to them, because they could see the joy in his eyes. They even taught him the alphabet and so proved his intelligence. But it wasn´t until he was 12 years old, that he started speaking with the help of a special computer, created by skilled engineers. He was now able to express his thoughts by moving his head. The computer would type every letter that he wanted and so became the most important communication mean for Rick. To his parents surprise his first words were: “Go Bruins!”, which is a professional ice-hockey team. From that moment they knew, that he has a big passion for sports.

In 1977 Dick and Rick competed in their first marathon for a paralyzed lacrosse player, who went to school with Rick. Although Dick was not a runner, he agreed to push Rick the 5 miles in his wheelchair. The same night Rick told his Dad, what he needed to hear : “Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped.” After that team Hoyt was born!

Until now Dick pushed, pulled and carried Rick in over 1000 races, including marathons, duathlons triathlons, of which 6 Ironman competitions were. In 2009 the Boston Marathon, was their official 1000th race.  It is also their favorite race and the one they still want to do, even if they are just participating in one race per year.

Besides the sportive achievement, Rick finished High school and graduated from Boston University with a degree in special education in 1993. Currently he is working at the same university and even moved into his own flat.

Team Hoyt are also motivational speakers to spread their message all over the world. It is simple, but so inspiring – They say that everything is possible, as long enough faith in the own strengths and love exist.  They want to inform people about the opportunities disabled people have. So far they have also been on many TV shows to give families and people hope and they even found the “Hoyt Foundation”, which is a non-profit organization, which helps to encourage young handicapped people to build up self-esteem and self-confidence.

Superheroes come across in all sizes and shapes and to my mind team Hoyt definitely belongs to them. Dick is such a selfless, loving and caring father, he does everything to make his son forgetting his disability. He gave him a taste of life beyond his wheelchair. But it is not just a story of a loving father and his intelligent son, it is a story about courage and faith. Judy and Dick believed in Rick, they never gave up. Rick fought as well and managed to graduate from University with a degree.

Their message:”Yes you can” is so motivational and inspiring. Sometimes it might not be easy to overcome problems and barriers, but it is possible!

In conclusion I would like to thank Friederike, who drew my attention to team Hoyt. Thank you, it was a great hint, it definitely enriched my blog!

Daul Kim, a korean model, had to learn that the hard way as well. She couldn´t find a way out of the depression and after all was found dead in her apartment in Paris last week.

Daul was born in 1989 in Seoul, South Korea. She modeled since she was a young child. 2006 was a turning point in her life, because for the first time she was on the cover of the korean Vogue. After that her career took off. She became the new face of many famous designers. Among others, Daul was walking for Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, Dolce & Gabbana and Roberto Cavalli. She was shot by the best photographers and for the most popular magazines.

Her career was at its height, since Daul became a very coveted model of the fashion world. She earned a big salary for every job she did. Designers were all falling over her. Girls envied her for her beauty and on top of that she was the face of Korea on a worldwide level.

However this was just the façade the superficial world wanted to sustain. In reality she was just screaming for help. Daul was the user of a blog with the title: “I like to fork myself” in which she expressed her agony and chronicled her thoughts. The loneliness and pressure of being on the catwalk was suffocating for her. On October 30th she wrote: “Mad depressed and overworked, the more I gain the more lonely it is. I know I’m like a ghost.” She said, she was burning in hell, not being able to sleep, eat and face herself at the end of the day in the mirror and feel happy. The pressure of fulfilling expectations literary killed her. In her last post she wrote: “Say hi to forever”

Her management knew, that she was depressed, but totally dismissed the seriousness of the situation and even took advantage of her fragile appearance, which was in great demand.

The case of Daul Kim is not the only one. It is said, that approximately one million people commit suicide every year. This is one death every 40 seconds.  Depressions are often the main reason. At some time nearly everyone feels helpless, fragile and depressed, but it does not directly lead to suicide. Most people decide to live instead of dying, because they realized that the crisis is temporary. But people in the midst of a crisis feel a great loss of control and evaluate their situation as inescapable.

There is no prevention from getting depressed, the only thing you can do is watching out for signals, which involves being aware of feelings, thoughts and behaviors and the most important part – to get help.

I don´t know the exact circumstances, but I think there was a great chance that Daul´s death could have been avoided, if her management, friends and family would have recognized the signs. With 20 she already underwent great pressure. Her life was definitely on the edge between happiness and agony.  Daul was caught in a crossfire of influences and couldn´t find a way out of her depression. Like her many other people are in the same situation, since life is not always sunshiny. It is not embarrassing, rather it is crucial to get help and to find the will to live and to be happy again.

Even the hardest crisis is not necessarily inescapable, because there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Today I would like you to meet Taylor Warren, a little girl, whose life took a different path at the age of 4.

On September the 6^th 2007, Taylor felt very sick, she had a high fever and so her mum gave her some fever reducers. The fever went away, but came back after some hours. The fever went on and off and so her mother took her to the doctor. He examined her and agreed that something is wrong. He did some more testing. Her mother was very worried and suddenly she got the call, she never wanted to get. The doctor wanted her to take Taylor immediately to the hospital for some further examinations! The same night, September 13^th 2007, she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

Her family was devastated, little Taylor was too small to realize what was going on. All she knew was, that something was really wrong with her, because she saw that her parents are crying…

The good news was that the blood cancer was found very early, so no permanent harm to major organs was done yet. Brave Taylor was soon put in remission, which among other things involves chemotherapy. She had to take very strong medications, which attacked the multiplying Leukemia cells.  Since they were aggressive, her hair started to fall out. But that was no reason to be sad for Taylor, she just made a party out of it. First she cut her daddy´s and mummy´s hair and finally her uncle shaved hers off. Like that day, her family helped her to turn even the hardest day into at least a bit of fun.

Even though the little girl tried to be as brave as possible, sometimes the side effects were just too horrible to bear.  Sickness and weakness took over her body, since she had to struggle with many infections and all in all had to suffer a lot of pain. Besides that she wanted to stay at home with her sister and her parents, wanted to go to school every day and just have fun with her friends, just like any normal girl…

Not only Taylor was pushed to the limit, also her parents could not understand why that had happened to their little baby. The worst nightmare a mother and father can go through. They would have given everything to take over the pain and to release her, but they couldn´t.  All they could do was trying to be stronger than her.

Although most of the time was pretty rough, one thing Taylor never lost – her smile!

Taylor´s family and friends always tried to keep her as upbeat as possible and still do, since the battle is not over yet. They decorated her room with more balloons than she ever had, visit her every day and give her what she needs the most – love . She also has a child psychologist, who stops by every day to play games with her as well.

Taylor is a very brave and strong girl and with the support of her loving family and a bit of luck she has almost completely beaten the cancer. Currently Taylor is in maintenance, the last stage of chemotherapy. She is expected to have the last day of treatment on the 26^th of December in 2009. Hopefully after that she is totally cured!

Taylor´s story is very touching, luckily she belongs to those children, who will very likely survive the hard battle. I think the fact that she has never forgotten how to smile is so admirable. Even though she is so young, she is already so mature and tries to make the best out of her medical condition. Taylor is very strong and brave, probably braver than the most of us.

When I watched one of her videos , I could suddenly feel tears running down my cheek. I know she will probably beat the cancer, but there are so many other children out there who won´t. It made me realize that we should appreciate life much more and treasure even the simplest things. Often we take health, a loving family and great friends for granted and just tend to forget to be thankful for that.

Superheroes like Taylor show us to never give up hope. Do you know someone like her?

John Lynch is one of those persons, he broke free from the boring life of a bank manager. He left the ties behind to be unique. And how did he do it? – Piercings!

John Lynch

He worked for more than 30 years for Barclays bank in England, living the normal life. He “felt like a square peg in a round hole” and always wanted a few piercings and tattoos. At the age of 40 he quit his job and got his first piercing on his eyebrow and even his first tattoo – an eagle on his right arm. John got kind of addicted to it, because more and more piercings followed. He wanted to stand out from the crowed, doing what he always wanted to do.

Today he is 78 years old and the most pierced man in the world. He holds the record of 241 piercings and studs all over his body. 150 of them are on his neck and head. John didn´t leave it to chance, because before his body art was counted for the Guinness Book of World Records he got another 20 piercings popped into his arm.                                                                                                                      Besides that, his body is covered with tattoos. A portrait of his favorite movie star Marilyn Monroe is tattooed on his torso. John became a well-known character in the piercing and tattoo world.

Although he totally lives his dream, the piercings and tattoos limit him. Not to speak of the health problems which come along with the weight of his body art, he had to give up flying, because the security scanners couldn´t cope with the large number of piercings. In addition his love life is suffering as well. Even though his appearance impresses many girls, he didn´t have a serious relationship for the last years. His urge for attention intimidates most women.

But the most important fact is that he is happy! He does what he always wanted to do- covering his body with more and more piercings and tattoos. It makes him proud to be the most pierced man in the world. John Lynch is a bird of paradise, who loves to spend time with his children, of whom no one has a single piercing.

I think that John Lynch is definitely a very eccentric pensioner, who looks a bit scary and has one more screws loose.  But what is most important is that he is happy. His appearance is his way of self-expression, it makes him what he always wanted to be – unique.  We all dream every now and then to break free, but are sometimes to afraid to do so. We should never care about other people’s opinion, as long as we do everything with passion, no one can judge our behavior. Sometimes we have to risk something to live the life we always wanted to!