An Outlaw is Killed, a Song is Born

As it happens it was on this day in 1895 that frontier outlaw and admitted mass murderer John Wesley Hardin was shot in an El Paso saloon. That kind of ends this blog entry’s connection to the historic Mr Hardin.

A bunch of years later in 1967 Bob Dylan, who had a long time interest in outlaw cowboys composed a song that, admittedly was only directly connected to Hardin through the rhythm of his name, becoming the enigmatic but haunting John Wesley Harding.

For me, at least in part, the blending of a sordid history and a Robin Hood like myth is compelling. In a rather different context C. S. Lewis wrote of the “grubby roots of our affections.” Me, I like both the affections and the grubby roots, and so, for just a moment, I invite a pause, to listen, and to consider the complexities of life…