Here I go again

I have a problem. I get borderline unhealthy obsessions on morbid/odd stories and historical events. My running tally includes the Holocaust, the Romanov dynasty and the Tudors. If there is something on tv, a movie or a book about any of those, you bet I'm all over it. In fact, I accidentally read Angela's Ashes because the not-so-bright book girl told me it was about a family surviving the Holocaust, which couldn't be farther from the truth. Hub's indulges my obsession, too. He very sweetly surprises me with a cable upgrade to include Showtime so I can watch Tudors every new season. But honestly, he really gets into the cute girls whose clothes tend to fall off story line.

So we recently watched Into The Wild ,  and I decided to pick the book up for our trip to Disney.  I devoured it, and finished it as we were hitting the Georgia state line.  Because we still had a good 6 hours to go, I spent the rest of the time googling pictures of Chris McCandless and reading excerpts to Hubs.  His story just haunts me.  I think it's because he reminds me visually of a friend of mine's husband, physically of a friend of mine's brother and mentally of my brother.  I could totally see UP running off into the woods just to see what would happen.  

I think one of the main things that intruiges me about Chris, is how absolutely happy he was.  He documented his journey in a journal and through pictures.  I hate to post this, because I don't know the true person to give credit to, but here's a picture I found on flickr posted by a chriso2000.  It's the last photo taken of Chris.  He knew he was about to die, was getting too weak and the possiblity of someone finding him before he died was slim to say the least.  Yet here he is in his farewell message, looking extremely emaciated but holding a sign that reads, "I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD.  GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!"

What a peaceful and message to leave the world!  I don't think I would have gone off into the woods like he did, but had I been in his galoshes, I'm quite sure my last note/pic would not have been that touching or happy looking.  I mean, look at his face.  I just spent a week in Disney World, and I'm not sure I look as happy as he does in any of my pictures, and he's about to die.

I'm now off to find some chick lit to read and rot my brain so I don't start getting too obsessed with his story.