Jack Kerouac, "The Dharma Bums" "...all [people] really should do is just build or buy an old Jap house and vegetable garden and have a place there for cats to hang out in and be Buddhists, I mean have a real flower of something and not just the usual American middle-class fuggup with appearances. Anyway I'm looking forward to it, oh boy I can just see myself in the morning sitting on the mats with a low table at my side, typing on my portable, and my hibachi nearby with a pot of hot water on it keeping hot and all my papers and maps and pipe and flashlight neatly packed away and outside plum trees and pines with snow on the boughs and up on Mount Hieizan the snow getting deep and sugi and hinoki all around, them's redwoods, boy, and cedars. Little tucked-away temples down the rocky trails, cold mossy ancient places where frogs croak, and inside small statues and hanging buttery lamps and gold lotuses and paintings and ancient in-cense-soaked smells and lacquer chests with statues." This was true back in 1958 and is still true today. I am looking forward to sharing a hot pot of tea in my humble house with my Dharma Bum friends, your cup is waiting. nostr:note1ysgtnlzlsdhvtczxpgww8pj7aayz7cxje93jvgdhksqanaaw8y3q4x06gy