Sunday, March 13, 2011

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".



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