'John from Cincinnati' story raises many questions about media, interesting developments, 'dumbing down' of Americans
by Steve Hammons
That Imperial Beach in San Diego County was chosen as the setting for “John from Cincinnati” is not an unimportant thing. It has meanings. And the meanings are not entirely clear for many people.
JOHNNY APPLESEED
The team that worked on “John from Cincinnati” explored the unusual and anomalous things that we sometimes encounter in our everyday lives.
Odd coincidences that might actually be “synchronicity” – parallel occurrences that are not random accidents, but have some meaning and are connected in ways that might be mysterious, unusual or unclear.
These kinds of happenings reflect the understanding from current scientific studies and some theories in psychology and philosophy about the way things take shape in our lives.
Some events and developments are non-linear and non-local. That is, our normal understanding of time and space are not the only ways that time and space work. Our normal day-to-day lives may interface with other configurations of time and space that are different.
Our connections with other people, too, might be different and deeper than we realize.
It is clear from certain episodes of “John” that aspects of synchronicity were being examined and portrayed. Were other connections with significance going on in the show that we are not fully aware of?
For example, the opening song for the series is “Johnny Appleseed” performed by Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros. Part of the lyrics are:
Lord, there goes Johnny Appleseed – He might pass by in the hour of need – There's a lot of souls – Ain't drinking from no well locked in a factory
Lord, there goes a Buick forty-nine – Black sheep of the angels riding, riding down the line – We think there is a soul, we don't know – That soul is hard to find
Apart from the obvious spiritual tone of the lyrics, did the “John from Cincinnati” team realize Johnny Appleseed lived in the southern Ohio and Indiana area in the Cincinnati region? Did Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros?
Did they know that Johnny Appleseed, born John Chapman, grew up during the era of the American Revolution and its aftermath? He was born in 1774 and died in 1845. He was not a vagabond who wandered around dropping apple seeds, but actually created many orchards and nurseries, and was quite wealthy when he passed on.
He was also deeply involved in a church based on the philosophy of Emmanuel Swedenborg, a spiritual viewpoint followed by millions of people today that explores ideas about the afterlife, other spiritual dimensions, angels and similar concepts.
Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman lived in an era when the Cherokee and many other indigenous Indian people were being pushed out of the Appalachian Mountain region, Ohio and other areas along the frontier of westward exploration and expansion of the European colonists and newly-minted “Americans.” In fact, Chapman planted some of his apple nurseries along old Indian trails.
The Indians were also being assimilated through intermarriage into the cultures of the new Americans. Or was it the other way around? Were the English, Scottish, French and other newcomers being assimilated into native American ways?
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