File Under "Illusions, Shattered"

Whenever the stress of big-city living starts to wear us down—which seems to be happening an awful lot these days—we briefly fantasize about chucking it all in favor of life as a shepherd. We can trace this pipe dream back to our grade-school viewing of Fletch, in which Chevy Chase's titular character facetiously replies "I'm a shepherd" to the main villain's query regarding his occupation. Ever since, the pull of green mountains and woolly ruminant mammals has been awfully strong at times.

A...