Hey Jack Kerouac

So yesterday (Saturday the 12th) was Jack Kerouac's birthday. In theory, not very relevant to a Jewish blog (he was a spiritual Catholic and sometime Zen Buddhist, after all). Except for me, where the connection was obvious and personal. When I was exploring my own spirituality in adolescence and early adulthood, Kerouac's own journeys--described in On The Road, The Dharma Bums and Pomes All Sizes, which had just come out when I was in college--served as guides for me. His own struggles for connection with God and people resonated with me (and still do) and in a way reflect my own quasi-mystical explorations for understanding what Divinity is and how to encounter it. That his books have not become like, say, Salinger's Catcher in the Rye; that is, scrubbed clean for use in school curricula, is a very good thing in my mind. His work is still fearless and dangerous and filled with both a sense of awe and appreciation for what is unknowable, and waits, like any good Mystery, to be discovered by each new generation of seekers.

So happy birthday "Ti Jean".

Hey Jack Kerouac - 10 000 maniacs by pseudomino