Monday, November 26, 2007

Into the Wild, Intimacy and Creation



There is a scene from Into the Wild, when the hippies are camped at Slab City, and a young girl invites (begs?) Chris to sleep with her. For the record, he is 23 and she is 16. Knowing from the book that Chris was known to hold himself to a strict, high moral standard, I was not surprised when he told the girl "no." But what was extremely cool (and very deep and thoughtful) was, after saying no, Chris said, "but there is something that we can do together." The next scene showed him sitting at an old keyboard and the girl on acoustic guitar at an open mic session. And the song was awesome.

That is a beautiful scene, full of imagery, because of the intimacy of creation. When two people have sex, we typically refer to that as "making love." Sex leads to procreation. Making life. 2 becoming 1. Entwined together. Chris valued the young girl, as a person, and he valued her friendship. He accepted her offer of intimacy - to create - yet he gave expression to that offer in a way that placed a high value on her as a person. He did not "take" from her, rather, he gave of himself - his time and his talent. Together, they created melody. Harmony. The keyboard added fullness to the music of the guitar. The sound was richer. They complimented each other, and a song - music - was born.

I suspect that night was a night that she has never forgotten, nor ever regretted.

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