John Adams and "The Dharma at Big Sur"

I have long held a theory for those of Midwestern extraction: They are enchanted by either mountains or ocean. Okay, so that is a vast generalization, but so many Midwesterners I know (being one myself) have often romanticized one or the other. The flatness of Illinois and Indiana prompting an idealization of the summits or vastness of the ocean. While the mountains fascinate me, the oceans have always had a pull on me. Technically, my first view of the ocean was when I crossed the English C...