Zen Lunatics

"There was a wisdom in it all, as you'll see if you take a walk some night on a suburban street and pass house after house on both sides of the street each with the lamplight of the living room, shining golden, and inside the little blue square of the television, each living family riveting its attention on probably one show; nobody talking; silence in the yards; dogs barking at you because you pass on human feet instead of on wheels. You'll see what I mean, when it begins to appear like everybody in the world is soon going to be thinking the same way and the Zen Lunatics have long joined dust, laughter on their dust lips."

Kerouac knew he wanted to be a writer long before he knew the things he would accomplish. In the 1950 he spent his time as a "rucksack wanderer" and soon to be "Zen Lunatic" droping out of Cornell University and following Ginsburg and Cassidy to San Francisco where he would meet Gary Snyder and later become invested in the practice of Buddhism.

He began the beat generation and is labeled as " the father of the hippies." He was the founder and leader of the counter culture of beatniks who aim to do live life detached from the ills of society. Of his most famous books is On the Road where he recounts his journey hitch hiking across the country. A prolific writer of this generation, he expressed life with vivid beauty while still recognizing the suffering inherent in all things.

From On The Road:

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'"

From Dharma Bums:

"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."