#259 / Watchtower

About a year ago, I cited to Bob Dylan's song, Mississippi, to make the point that "town" and "country" are metaphors for the two worlds we inhabit. I call them the "human world," or the "political world," and the "World of Nature," or "the Natural World," or even "the World That God Created."

Two Worlds! And they are different. And we better not get confused. If we were "raised in the country," we are now "workin' in the town." And just like Dylan says, we have definitely "been in trouble ever since [we] set [our] suitcase down."

Mississippi is not the only Dylan song that refers to our strained relationship to the World of Nature. For instance, consider this commentary on our human failure to know the value of the Natural World: 

All Along The Watchtower 

“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief
“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth” 

“No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke
“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late” 

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl 

Two Worlds! And the hour is getting late.

Image Credit: 

http://hdrcreme.com/photos/45924-All-Along-the-Watchtower