Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty

A wanderer sets out from his Midwestern hometown on a barefoot trek across plains, mountains and desert, carrying only a modest pack of printed verses and a one‑page “Gospel of Beauty.” Early one summer morning in the cliffs of southern Colorado, a flamboyant gypsy wagon bursts onto the scene, its brightly adorned occupants demanding, “What you sellin’, boy?” The encounter crackles with comic‑opera flair, as the traveler, now dressed in a garish sombrero and yellow corduroys, offers his tiny booklet of rhymes and his formula for making America lovelier, trading them for a brief, spirited dialogue that feels both absurd and sincere.

Guided by a set of self‑imposed rules that reject money, railroads and conventional comforts, he lives on the kindness of strangers, asking for meals at odd hours and preaching his simple creed: return home, plant the seeds of art, and tend them to grow. His encounters with curious townsfolk, mothers’ clubs and debating societies hint at a larger, playful mission—to sow beauty wherever the road leads—leaving listeners eager to hear how this unconventional pilgrimage continues.