Ingredients:
1 bottle of Tokay wine
1 can of sardines
1 cold boxcar
a little bread
candy
cheese
Directions:
The Dharma Bums (pp. 7-8)
I jumped over the side and ran across Highway 101 to the store, and bought, besides wine, a little bread and candy. I ran back to my freight train which had another fifteen minutes to wait in the now warm sunny scene. But it was late afternoon and bound to get cold soon. The little bum was sitting cross-legged at his end before a pitiful repast of one can of sardines. I took a pity on him and went over and said, ’How about a little wine to warm you up? Maybe you'd like some bread and cheese with your sardines.’
’Sure thing.’ He spoke from far inside a little meek voice-box afraid or unwilling to assert himself. I'd bought the cheese three days ago in Mexico City before the long cheap bus trip across Zacatecas and Durango and Chihuahua two thousand long miles to the border at El Paso. He ate the cheese and bread and drank the wine with gusto and gratitude. I was pleased. I reminded myself of the line in the Diamond Sutra that says, ’Practice charity without holding in mind any conceptions about charity , for charity after all is just a word.’
...
The little bum in the gondola solidified all my beliefs by warming up to the wine and talking and finally whipping out a tiny slip of paper which contained a prayer by Saint Teresa announcing that after her death she will return to the earth by showering it with roses from heaven, forever, for all living creatures.
’Where did you get this?’ I asked.
’Oh, I cut it out of a reading-room magazine in Los Angeles couple of years ago. I always carry it with me.’
’And you squat in boxcars and read it?’
’Most every day.’ He talked not much more than this, didn't amplify on the subject of Saint Teresa, and was very modest about his religion and told me little about his personal life. He is the kind of thin quiet little bum nobody pays much attention to even in Skid Row, let alone Main Street.
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