Sometimes I live in the country
Sometimes I live in the town
Sometimes I get a great notion
To jump into the river an’ drown

— Leadbelly

Sometimes you have to go back to your adolescent days and try to be more simple, direct, and not so hung-up.

I’m rereading The Dharma Bums for maybe the 5th time. I can’t remember. I always thought that this book and On the Road and Subterraneans were Kerouac’s best work. I have tried to read Desolation Angels, but always give up a hundred or so pages in.

The Dharma Bums was the book I read in high school that made me realize I was being too serious, which has been a problem for me all my life.

The quote above is the inspiration for “Sometimes a Great Notion” by Ken Kesey, which I might read next. They are lyrics from “Goodnight Irene”, which were supposedly purged when the Weavers covered it in 1950. I like the ragged wildness of those lyrics.

I took a mellow bike ride this afternoon down to Hampden and back. I stopped 3 separate times to fiddle with the adjustment of my seat. I’m thinking I had it too low, which may have caused this knee weirdness lately. But more likely, it was cuz I’ve been spinning like a madman on the training in a high gear (6. my bike has 7 speeds…) So, I stayed in 4 and 5 most of the time, 4 when I was going up long hills.

It takes a lot of fiddling to get your seat right, to get it just so. Same could be said for your heart. I’m trying to open mine lately, and let the nonsense joy of Kerouac & Co. back in.