Look, Sal,
I appreciate all of your poetic inclinations. Hey, I'm all for dreams. And I love adventure.
But I have something to tell you. When we bounced around together on that truck bed, racing across the country, you told me about your friend Dean. You said that your friend Dean was different from the rest of them, that he "just raced in society, eager for bread and love; he didn't care one way or the other."
Hate to break it to you, but Dean is the same as them all. He's just another variety of the kind of lost soul under the sun. What's the real difference between Dean and an advertising man? How does Dean treat people? Look at him with new eyes and realize that he uses people just the same as an advertising man might, he's just more romantic about it.
And that lonely feeling that you feel whenever you slow down long enough for your soul to catch up with itself. That sadness and weariness you feel when you're "far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room you've never seen"?
That doesn't go away until you find home where you are. And you don't find home where you are when you're always running away.
You are privileged. You have potential. I'm not even saying that you have to get a job or move to a city. Just do something for someone else for a change.
You're also not a real hobo if your aunt sends you money anytime things get tight.
My advice to you is this: care.
It doesn't make you a sell-out to care.
And take some time to think about how Lucille, Teresa, that sullen girl, Marylou, and the countless other girls that you and Dean "make" feel.
I appreciate all of your poetic inclinations. Hey, I'm all for dreams. And I love adventure.
But I have something to tell you. When we bounced around together on that truck bed, racing across the country, you told me about your friend Dean. You said that your friend Dean was different from the rest of them, that he "just raced in society, eager for bread and love; he didn't care one way or the other."
Hate to break it to you, but Dean is the same as them all. He's just another variety of the kind of lost soul under the sun. What's the real difference between Dean and an advertising man? How does Dean treat people? Look at him with new eyes and realize that he uses people just the same as an advertising man might, he's just more romantic about it.
And that lonely feeling that you feel whenever you slow down long enough for your soul to catch up with itself. That sadness and weariness you feel when you're "far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room you've never seen"?
That doesn't go away until you find home where you are. And you don't find home where you are when you're always running away.
You are privileged. You have potential. I'm not even saying that you have to get a job or move to a city. Just do something for someone else for a change.
You're also not a real hobo if your aunt sends you money anytime things get tight.
My advice to you is this: care.
It doesn't make you a sell-out to care.
And take some time to think about how Lucille, Teresa, that sullen girl, Marylou, and the countless other girls that you and Dean "make" feel.
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