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12 March 2011

11 March 2011

Today was awesome because I had nothing to do.

And I took full advantage of it!  For lunch I had Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.  Quite possibly my favourite food of all time, and a staple of my diet since about age nine.  I half-seriously consider myself a Grilled Cheese Sandwich connoisseur, having experimented with ingredients and preparation methods for over a decade.  I'm also the only person I know who always spells Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with capital letters.  Having been on the move for most of February, it had been over a month since I had bitten into the light crunch of the golden-brown bread, releasing the melted cheese from it's whole-wheat tomb.  Dipped in ketchup, of course.

Much of the afternoon was spent reading, practicing the guitar, and completing a crossword puzzle, catered with several cups of tea.  I went for a walk in the early evening and browsed the local outdoorsman stores for supplies I'll need if I go camping this weekend.  Really though, I just went for a walk to stretch my legs, breathe the fresh air, and observe the world around me.  Victoria is such a vibrant world.

Before bed I finished The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac.  I've wanted to read Kerouac for a long time.  Last summer I visited every used-book store in London, Ontario in search of his spontaneous prose, but each clerk informed me that they never manage to keep his books on the shelf very long.

I believe things are presented to you at the right time.  The time you need it most.  Or the time it's most useful.  Or the time you are ready for it.  Et cetera.  My housemate Darryl offered me his copy of The Dharma Bums this week.  "Ti Jean" Kerouac came to me at the right time.

"...see the whole thing is a world full of rucksack wanderers, 
Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that
they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege 
of consuming, all that crap they didn't really want anyway
such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, at least new fancy cars,
certain hair oils and deodorants and general junk you finally always 
see a week later in the garbage anyway, all of them imprisoned in a
system or work, produce, consume, work, produce, consume,
I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions 
of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to 
mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad,
making young girls happy and old girls happier,
all of 'em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen
to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind
and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of
eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures..."
- Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

How awesome is that!




(What made your day awesome?  Tell me in the comments section below.  I'd love to hear about it!)

1 comment:

  1. Getting your message and knowing that within its contents are 1,000 more days of awesome with you in my life!!! :)

    ReplyDelete