Jack Kerouac, “The Dharma Bums”
Pg. 154

“Stay away from that yard son, I thought. I went up a dry arroyo and in the starlight and sand ad rocks were white, I climbed and climbed. Suddenly I was exhilarated to realize I was completely alone and safe and nobody was going to wake me up all night long. What an amazing revelation! And I had everything that I needed right on my back.”

After a long trip from Carolina Ray was exhausted and needed a place to sleep, instead of a hotel he finds a wonderful mountain. When he gets to the to he looks around and the view is beautiful, its all Mexico. Ray has been home for a while and has forgotten the feeling of silence and being alone. When he gets out here he finds himself again and realizes how wonderful it feels to be more connected to his surroundings and be back on the road.

Pg. 154
“All I had for companionship was that moon of Chihuahua sinking lower and lover as I looked, loosing its white light and getting more yellow butter, yet when I turned to sleep it was bright as a lamp in my face and I had to turn my face away to sleep. In keeping with my naming of the spots with personal names I called this spot Apache Gulch, I slept well indeed.”

I fell like before his experiences he would have never noticed something like this before or appreciated it as much as he does in this passage. Ray gets both sides of the coin he knows what its like to live in regular society, when he goes home he see what it could be like for him is he didn’t choose this life of solitude and Buddhism. By getting both side of the coin helps him appreciate what he enjoys more so then if he was living one path not knowing the other side and becoming curious about it.