Never wash your hands in muddy water. You just stir things up

I have a confession to make — I like country music and philosophy too — an odd pair of likes, huh?

My father-in-law Leon Knight would always enjoy playing bluegrass music and he even liked honky-tonk songs, and I heard an old favorite of mine on the radio last week.

Stonewall Jackson, a country singer, had a popular hit back in 1965 called "I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water." I used to sing this song:

‘I was born in Macon, Georgia

They kept my dad in the Macon jail;

Dad said, “Son, if you keep your hands clean,

You won’t hear them bloodhounds on your trail’

More Pete: Can’t every day be like Christmas?

It was a song about a family of criminals; the dad knew that committing crimes would cause one to end up in the "hoosegow." He tried to warn his son with those words above; unfortunately, the son robbed a man, got caught, locked up and they threw away the key.

The son lamented on the cellblock:

“I washed my hands in muddy water;

Washed my hands, oh but they didn’t come clean

Tim Rowland: 'Classy' restaurants have been pushing the envelope for too long

Tried to do what my daddy told me, yeah

But I must have washed my hands in a muddy stream.

Is there a moral to this story?

Well, one might believe if you continue stirring up the swimming hole, the water will always remain muddy, and trying to get clean will be most difficult.

As a matter of fact, I have a favorite English philosopher from years back named Alan Watts; he was a student of Zen in a school of Buddhism, which emphasizes self-restraint-practice and insight.

He too offered an opinion about muddy water when he simply said this:

“Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.”

I learned to swim in a water pond near the John Brown farm many years ago, and I discovered then, the more kids frolicked and jumped around in the pond, the muddier it got, but the more we floated and relaxed the water became clearer.

Watts presented a similar argument as he offered his wisdom on the disturbed water:

“As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil.”

Sometimes the more we stir up the water like we did in the John Brown Pond, it burns our eyes and things become increasingly unclear.

Now you might be thinking that this old Dargan Boy is a little slow in his problem-solving ability, but there is perhaps more to this story.

I would have you consider a few thoughts maybe to illustrate that opinion of philosopher Watts.

The Vietnam conflict lasted 10 years or better; it was long, costly and divisive; some 58,220 American soldiers died there and it damaged the U.S. economy.

Is this an example of muddy water stirred up by politicians who didn’t have a clue about having clean hands? Did the U.S. gain anything for their investment?

A few more examples of stirring up muddy water might include those conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Ukraine and other places around the world.

More: Hey Rudolph, make way for a piebald buddy

Some of our political friends might even be humming that one liner from the above song themselves:

"I washed my hands in muddy water; washed my hands, but they wouldn’t come clean."

And for sure those habitual criminals must have washed their hands in muddy water, and once released from the Big House, they have a tendency to do the very same thing and return back to their prison cells.

Is our current criminal justice system muddied too then?

The immigration problem today seems like an unfixable one, but if unfixed what might be the outcome?

Do any of our political friends have a solution to that muddy water in the Rio Grande stirred up as feet trample through the mud there to get to this country.

Or perhaps our political friends never tire of singing this same verse:

"I washed my hands in muddy water; washed my hands, but they wouldn’t come clean."

And consider the drug addict who once got hooked on a drug that seems so enticing to be tried just once but then results in a lengthy addiction down that street of misery, despair and often death.

Muddy water almost always ends in a situation where "everything seems unsettled." When the water becomes muddy, confusion arrives and that situation becomes unclear and worse.

There are many more examples that could be offered. Perhaps even you are confronting a muddy water issue in your own life’s pond.

What might philosopher Watts advice be?

Be still and learn.

Pete Waters is a Sharpsburg resident who writes for The Herald-Mail.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Never wash your hands in muddy water