If ever there was a place able to contain my spirit it is New York City. I am leaving the confines of my tiny hometown. Its oppressive traditions and suffocating stench held onto me for too long.  My mother always told me New Yorkers live among colossal skyscrapers, immense corporations, and...

The very purpose of our life is happiness, the very motion of our life is towards happiness.” -The Dalai Lama To explore even a single question that arises from our study of Christopher McCandless is a daunting task. He was an extremely complicated and enigmatic character and he struggled...

The statue stood fast to his pedestal in the middle of the stone parapet. His sculptor was huddled close to the feet of the marble majesty. His small tools were making delicate corrections: sanding, smoothing and polishing. He lightly lifted his chisel and placed its worn edge at the base of...

No law is heeded in the American desert. Survival is ensured by vicious violence and blood sacrifices. Desert dwellers build altars to Death and feed it Pain. The Pit was the greatest of these altars. It was a crudely shaped impression that sunk three feet into the earth. The walls of the...

The smoldering grains of false comfort Drive my desire toward the cool, inviting swells. If love is the enemy, can time be the savior? The warning was clear: None can visit without the clinging flame of the hot sand. It is hard, too hard to bear the heated passion of the sunburned...