Your assignment for today was to read Chapter 17 of The Dharma Bums and summarize it in one sentence. Below is my one-sentence summary -- post yours as a comment. I'd also love to see general comments about the chapter, or questions. By the way, with this chapter we are officially half way to the end (Chapter 34)!
The Dharma Bums Chapter 17 in one sentence:
Reaching Riverside by bus, Ray wants to try out his new gear and camp out but is warned by someone at the bus station that the cops would arrest him, nevertheless he buys food at a supermarket and then bushwhacks through the woods toward the riverbottom under the highway bridge to a nice opening where he can't be seen, he sets up camp, stands on his head for five minutes to clear his head cold, remembers crying in L.A. the night before because "After all a homeless man has reason to cry, everything in the world is pointed against him," eats his food, prays and includes a little prayer for Rosie, spends a long time sitting crosslegged and meditating, sleeps well except for some bamboo joints under the leaves -- "Better to sleep in an uncomfortable bed free, than sleep in a comfortable bed unfree" -- wakes and makes up a little morning prayer, packs his gear, and washes up in a tumbling spring across the highway to ready himself for his "three-thousand-mile hitchhike to Rocky Mount, North Carolina" where his mother is waiting.
Your next assignment is to read The Dharma Bums Chapter 18 and post a one-sentence summary.
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