Poppa Neutrino - Random Lunacy

Her: When the Boy and I first started learning that we shared similar dreams of traveling, he made mention of some strange fellow who moved his family from place to place in, among a number of things, a self-made "boat" made of found objects. However, it wasn't until just recently that I finally had the opportunity to sit down and watch the movie about this seemingly crazy* man. But... let me tell you... what a man! His story (and the story told by the rest of his family) is amazing and inspiring, to an aspiring nomad such as myself!

The man is "Poppa Neutrino." The movie is "Random Lunacy." Instead of trying to explain the premise behind the man (and the moments he captured on film that would later be used in the documentary of only a segment of his life), let me quote Erik Spink's IMDB review of the movie:

At the start of the film you find yourself wondering: How could a homeless man travel the world? What does a Dog bite have to do with any of this? Where did he get that hat? How does he know David Letterman? How did he learn to do that? By the end of the film we might not have all the explanations for the lunacy but we receive something greater. We leave the screening with much deeper questions: What is beautiful? What is necessary? What is love? What is normal? What is family? What do I truly need to be happy?

Indeed, what is beautiful, necessary, love, normal, or family? And, of those things, what do *I* need to be happy? The movie will have you asking these same questions of yourself, if you haven't already. In a way, I think Poppa Neutrino pretty much sums up the reasons why I want to live a life less ordinary... I have tried "normalcy" and would prefer, instead, the random lunacy that only a nomadic lifestyle may offer.

"What it comes down to is I don't want to ride the same horse in the same race tomorrow. I want to ride a different horse, or be in a different race."
~ Poppa Neutrino

(Google offers selected chapters of his biography "The Happiest Man in the World: An Account of the Life of Poppa Neutrino," by Alec Wilkinson, for preview on "books.google.com." You can read some of the chapters here.)

*The semantics-Nazi in me would like to clarify that there are no "crazy" people, only "crazy" ways of behaving. While Poppa Neutrino's story is inspirational, it should be noted that he risked not only his own life, but also the lives of his family and fellow travelers. Go here (third-party online access to an excerpt of the June 27, 2005 article from "The New Yorker," entitled "The Crossing") to read the other, less glamorous side of the story.