“They Wrote It All Down As the Progress of Man” (Part 3)

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If you’ve listened to John Prine’s song “Paradise,” you know it’s a sad lament for how “progress” destroys towns. Earlier this year I mentioned that the headline in the newspaper when the Paradise, Kentucky post office closed in 1967 read, “Progress Closes the Gates to Paradise.” Here are some of the marks of “the progress of man,” as Prine put it in the song. You see the railroad tracks where “Mr. Peabody’s coal train” hauled the coal (and the town) away, as well as a remnant of some of the massive amounts of coal pulled from the land. Finally, there’s the contrast of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) sign for the Paradise power plant and the cemetery indicating that the town of Paradise, like the people in the cemetery, is long gone. I primarily had @TheHorse on my mind when I was toodling around the various spots mentioned in the song today. In reality, whether you’re a fan of John Prine’s or not, and whether you like the song or not, there are valuable lessons to be learned from the past. Sometimes “the progress of man” isn’t the best way forward. One more time, here’s the legendary John Prine song “Paradise”: