mud is just fine

i don't know anyone who doesn't have a favorite movie from their younger years; that movie which you saw so often, parts of it are permanently ingrained in your memory banks. there are plenty of movies which i can spend an enjoyable bit of time watching again, which i either own on dvd or will stop channel surfing when i come across. but, i'm pretty sure that there are one or two movies which stand out the most. in my case, it has to be a quirky musical, starring the rascal lee marvin and a really good looking, pre-chair incident, clint eastwood. the movie, paint your wagon.

well, as it happens, i picked it up on dvd last week and decided to watch it with some musical loving friends. it's been quite a few years since last viewing; as i had it only on vhs, and like the dinosaurs, technology changes and viewing devices die. it's strange what one gets out of something so familiar. i've become more eco-conscious over the years, and since moving to and away from california these last few months, i saw something new in an old favorite. for the most part, it had to be the song lee marvin sings early on in the film, "the first thing you know". it goes like this:

God made the mountains

God made the sky

God made the people

God knows why

He fixed up the planet

As best as He could

Then in come the people

And gum it up good

The first thing you know

They civilized the foothills

And everywhere He put hills

The mountains and valley below

They come along and take 'em

And civilize and make 'em

A place where no civilized

Person would go

The first thing you know

The first thing you know

They civilize what's pretty

By puttin' up a city

Where nothin' that's

Pretty can grow

They muddy up the winter

And civilize it into 

A place too uncivilized

Even for snow

The first thing you know

They civilize left

They civilize right

Till nothing is left

Till nothing is right

They civilize freedom

Till no one is free

No one except

By coincidence, me

The first thing you know

The boozer's in prison

And the criminally isn't

And only the rascals have dough

When I see a parson

I gotta put my arse in

A wagon that follows the tail of a crow

The first thing you know

I pick up a blow!

The first thing you know

it just speaks to the environmental warrior in me. and makes me wonder about how far we haven't progressed in the years since it was recorded. paint your wagon was made in 1969. 43 years have come and gone, and i could wish for a better understanding of our planet, and our society's acceptance that we need to preserve it. all the things nature does for us can't easily be reinvented by mankind, and the functions that we will be forced to recreate won't work as seamlessly and balanced as the original.