Crawling through the Knowledge Corridor

Out here in what is called The Knowledge Corridor in southern New England there lives a man, rumored to have once been a brilliant academic with a promising future, who now crawls around on the streets. I should say he doesn't always crawl, most often he keeps busy cleaning and picking up along the sidewalks and on the edges of the Town Common. Periodically however, he seems to find it necessary to get down on all fours and get into some more detailed work. In fact, one police report had him actually licking the pavement. I once passed by him when he was upside down in a trash receptacle, his legs sticking up in the air slowly pumping away.

Perhaps Crawling Man (sorry, I don't know his name) is a bit fastidious, but often he doesn't appear that way in his person. Maybe it's more like he wants his surroundings to be in order, or perhaps he has merely put himself in charge, part one-man public works department, part mayor, part cop. I say this because he also seems to feel the need to interact with others, not so much in an official capacity as in coming from a place of some special or secret knowledge. This seems appropriate in some way

It should be noted that Crawling Man's exploits are often recorded on the Police Report in the local paper. His propensity to crawl across or along the street often stops traffic, leading some to call the cops maybe in concern for his safety, but more likely because, well, he's crawling in the street! Personally I don't mind. I just drive or walk around him. But others may find Crawling Man's behavior some how, what? off-putting? unseemly? To me this seems odd. If this is truly the "Knowledge Corridor", a place of education and contemplation, one might assume that more space might be given to citizens to learn from one another.

There are all kinds of knowledge in this troubled world, self-knowledge not being the least of it. I venture to guess most who pass by Crawling Man have little knowledge of what exactly the man thinks he's doing. I count myself among them. But those who object to his presence or are discomforted by him would do well to ask themselves why. Does Crawling Man offend their sense of order even as he may try to bring order to the universe? Who knows?