Chapter 9 is called, “Gues things happen that way: Johnny Cash and the Frailty of Human Nature.

In this chapter Gordon Barnes explores two conditions of human nature through a series of Johnny Cash’s songs. I’ll explore one here. The idea is that we, as humans, though we make our best attempts at helping those around and standing for what’s right, are very capable of falling into deep darkness, when the circumstances line up just right. One example Gordon gives is from Johnny Cash’s life as well as His song “Walk the Line.” In this song Cash boldly sings that he is always faithful to his wife while are the same time he ends up cheating on her. Here we gather that though, presumably, his intentions were to remain faithful, his circumstances lead him to do the opposite.

A second example is from the song, “Don’t Take your Guns to Town.” In this song we listen in to a conversation between a mother and son. The son is off to town, and the mother is worried. And pleads with him to leave his guns at home. But the son feels like he knows better. He can take care of himself. Well, in the end he gets shot down. And as he dies, he realizes the truth, he should’ve listened to his mother.

So here we see that though we feel in control, when put in certain circumstances, we may surprise ourselves and end up getting hurt. If we don’t pay attention to the possibilities around us.

thanks for reading

and as always

love and peace

brad