Devil in the City

A country boy in town

The TV series … McCloud … illustrated the experience of a man raised in the country … and his encounters in the big city. It raised a powerful message about the change that man goes through in society … from that of a kid to adult. Viewers would recall … that profound sense of being in contact with something … that they knew to be special … in their enjoyment of the program. That something special … speaks volumes … when we examine it closely for detail.

In a nutshell … McCloud relied on understanding human behavior … the way he may have noted the behavior of birds … raccoon … wolves … and so forth. In addition … his familiarity with the landscape … and his preferences and perceptions of it … for security … comfort … home … and so forth … built on his relation to the physical environment. He obviously thrived in that pastoral environment … and formed an association with his passions … that defined his personality.

In the city … in the pursuit of criminals … it must have reminded him of that wounded wolf … he was after one time. He was thinking like the criminal … and in that … he came to indicate a greater understanding of his environment … than even a drop-out criminal … hardened to life in the city … did. The program represented … the way he thought about himself … his manner of perceptions … and provided the gist of a basis … for his insights … explained logically as … significant understanding in a man.

Sadly … science does not give us much in the way … that a country boy's experience … may hold the key to human development of understanding. It has not examined the natural state of a child … open to all and sundry in his environment … that captures the essence of nature in his being. It is the first basis of the passions … and is the moral righteousness of folks … in all walks of life. We draw our knowledge from it … but as we move with that knowledge … we forget where we came from … and fall into the trap of the haste and knee-jerk reactions of the streets … that takes us away from our center of harmony with nature.

The urban environment strikes any man … new to the experience as a place of the instant professional. It begins as a denial of the pastoral experience … and creates an over-compensated ideal of the King of the hill … that sometimes translates as the mayor … police chief … or property baron … who seem to have all their strings in all the right connections. The position is much like the leader of a deer herd … or wolf pack … in the pastoral … that seeks to succeed in its survival orientation. The terms of such a situation … in the city … is denominated in money.

The existence in any individual … of the natural wisdom of nature … is experienced in the auto-impulses of the body … much like the immunization system. Our early knowledge base draws itself from it … in a certain innocent relation to our birth experience. However … our move to formal learning … divides us from the naturally existing impulses … and makes of knowledge … an achievement with accolades … praises … and rewards. Its the recognition of our participation in society … duty and role in it.

For those … who make it to the pinnacle of learning … that society encourages … with the masters degree and the doctor of philosophy … they find beyond the tumultuous achievements of career … a naturally existing relation between … knowledge and the pastoral nature of the passions. Between the break from the pastoral and the role of the philosopher … the man … undergoes quite an adventure of being lost and found. Its significant that the church … assigns itself to pastor to the members of society … to preserve their pastoral experience … as the natural right of all man.

City mayors deal with street gangs … and political leadership … with the opposition party. At issue is the way … we create an organization of society … that fulfills our needs for achievement. The King … Chandragupta Maurya … in 200 bc … seemed to promise the people … that achievement … and that continues in some way … with governments today … who seem to take on the whole world … as an individual nation … on account of their philosophy of achievement. So far … the outcome has been dismal.

Somewhere between … the pastoral and the King of the hill … the individual experiences a revolt in the separated pastoral … that denies him his achievement for greater understanding. It occurs on account of the separation … and our haste in not slowing down … to pastor to the pastoral. Our failure to create cognizance of the actual facts of the situation … propels us into a defense mechanism … that denies our culpability … in the matter … and transfers the fault to others … in a system in which we are all … under the same grind … for achievement.

The point at which the pastoral and human knowledge meet … is most curious to behold. The commonest expression that anyone makes at this time may well be … ' There's a reason for everything.' Then there are the others … ' It IS possible to know ' … ' I had thought it imagination … but its also reality ' … ' It appears that I was right all along ' … ' The more things change the more they remain the same.' Whatever the expression might be … its always nice to be back in the swim of things.

A Zen poem is succinct on the issue … ' Mount Lu in misty spring … The river Che at high tide … Before I went there … No rest from the pain of longing … Now that I've been there … Its just Mount Lu in misty spring … and the river Che at high tide.' I might add to that … that I saw a tall country Marshall … in a stetson … sitting on his horse among the trees … yelling … ' You be good you hear!'