A Tribute to Jack Kerouac
On March 12th, It was Jack Kerouac’s birthday. On the front page of our website you will find a quote by Kerouac “Sure baby, mañana. It was always mañana. For the next few weeks that was all I heard––mañana a lovely word and one that probably means heaven.” The quote comes from his legendary novel On The Road. For those younger On The Road has a very simple plot to it: It is the recollection, with slight tweaks, of Kerouac’s wild and crazy journeys hitchhiking across America and even down to Mexico in the 1940s.
Kerouac had the background of a kid like me or a kid like many people who may know Always Tomorrow. He went to prep school in the city, Horace Mann, he played football and received a scholarship to do so at Columbia University. At face value, Kerouac was a New York City handsome scholar. Someone bound for Wall Street or Mad Men. However, he dropped out of college-sophomore year- and begun a life dedicated to the philosophy of mañana: living each and ever day to the fullest because there is Always Tomorrow, so do what matters today, and do what makes today sweet and simple.
On The Road, which tells of all those stories Kerouac experienced in the years of traveling around America, hitchhiking city to city, women to women, job to job, and leaving the worries to mañana, is golden with beautiful quotes and passages. However, none is as famous, nor as inspiring as this passage to the right which inspired Zach Bryan’s “Burn, Burn, Burn”
“[...]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 who 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!”
For Kerouac the mad ones are the ones who hold a passion and love to live. It is my belief that everyone is mad, everyone has a passion and love to live that makes them burn, burn, burn. In the name of Kerouac, what is that passion to you, what makes you love living?
If today is not satisfactory, if the foreshadowing of tomorrow is gloom and gray, be mad! Be mad to burn, be mad to do what makes you want to live. Be mad to do what makes you explode into fabulous yellow roman candles. Our brand is Always Tomorrow, but that does not mean leave the good to tomorrow, it means leave the rut, the worries, and the woes for tomorrow, allow today to be the day that you burn and live.
When Kerouac speaks of mañana it is as ‘there is mañana for that suckish and tiring and slabbing task, for today is for me to live.” So to all that shit that ruts your mind and leaves you searching for more, we say mañana, because today is for living.
“There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.”
