Today is/would have been Jack Kerouac's 99th birthday. Next year on his centennial I'll do a long post or article with respect to my thoughts about him and his legacy for me personally. For now, suffice to say I probably wouldn't have been interested in Kerouac at all, his writing and effect upon my generation notwithstanding, were it not for his own failed spiritual quest.
Kerouac was a Pisces. He was both somewhat of a mystic and certainly was prone to mind-altering substances. Alcohol got him in the end. He also suffered from the fallout of his failed attempt as a Buddhist auto-didact. The ensuing existential ennui did a number on his head.
But his impact upon the world is indisputable. Thus, I'm going to acknowledge Jack today with this song of Leo Kottke's, which is about just such blase ennui, and which also evidences the associative and spontaneous wordplay that Jack loved so much. Fittingly, the song is entitled, "Jack Gets Up."
After all, this is the Forest of Arden....
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