Big Shoes to Fill
Posted by: The Discerning Man's Squatch on December 16th, 2013
Do we as humans have a need to believe in Bigfoot, a creature that is like us in many ways, but chooses to keep its distance from those things we don’t even like about ourselves?
In a lot of ways that is exactly what Bigfoot is. He is us in antithesis. We attribute to him features that are very human like. He walks upright, he is intelligent, he is a survivor. Unlike us, he is peaceful, does not fight wars, he does not destroy his environment and he does not have habits that have made us humans weak. He has not been affected by changes in technology and in fact may be exactly as he has always been despite a world that has transformed itself countless times at our hands over the millennia. A creature true to itself and the planet which it and we all call home.
There is much to be valued in a creature like this. It can show us what we have lost in ourselves that we once held very dear. He can give us hope of an unspoiled existence that can still be had. He can teach us to get along with each other for the benefit of everyone, and he can impart to us what it really is to be human and to not take our planet and resources for granted.
I think those who believe and those who want to, look up to Bigfoot as a role model of something we wish we had never lost… but despite our own urging continue to let slip away. We are no longer always a good Sheppard of all that we survey and we have forgotten our own connection to nature in a world that we are as much a part of as our own children are to us.
Bigfoot is a beacon of understanding and hope. He is why we still yearn and believe in something better than what we have settled into. He fights the good fight in his steadfastness and is undiscouraged by the changing world despite its seeming descent into something that we no longer recognize or appreciate in the way we once did. He is deeply and forever embedded into our psyche and is part and parcel of what it really is to be human. Could be that what we miss the most in ourselves, is what we love the most in Sasquatch, and what we ascribe to his character, is what we feel is missing in our own.
Bigfoot most definitely DOES exist. I have no doubt of this. If he is not out there roaming our forests, hills and valleys, at the very least we know for absolute certainty… he is roaming our hearts, our souls and our minds. For that very reason, we need not always go to the ends of the world to discover this animal, for he has always lived in our own backyard deeply snuggled within our synapses and ganglions, somewhere within our cortexes. He is a part of us, and we will never lose that completely as long as we remember one thing. That is, we too are a part of this world and just another animal amongst the many that call earth home. In our hurry towards progress we may have detached ourselves a bit from our humbler beginnings, but as long as we still have Bigfoot in our thoughts and dreams, there will always be a tether to lead us back home.
Ready, set… Bigfoot!
About The Discerning Man's Squatch
Gordon Ambrose from Golden, Colorado is an enthusiast of things that go bump in the night. The strange, the unexplained and the manufactured imaginings of the human species. Believing that the human monster can be the scariest of them all, Gordon likes to tackle these questions with a philosophical slant that digs deep into the human psyche.
“There are reasons we tell tales of the creepy kind Gordon believes, and they come from not only the darkness under our beds, but in the recesses of our minds, especially when the sun goes down and we are left with only our unprotected, naked selves.” Specifically for Gordon, Bigfoot is a fascinating and profound subject, and has the distinct possibility of being one of many real boogeymen that we have been warned about in myth and legend. “That is why it has captured almost everyone’s imagination, he says, both believer and skeptic.”
Gordon considers himself a skeptic, but warns that does not mean he doubts anything for doubts sake. Both sides have blinders on Gordon thinks, as skeptics can use the same faulty logic to come to conclusions as those who see our planet teeming with Bigfoots, UFOs, Sea Monsters and Ghosts. Critical thinking is our friend and the best tool in our tool box and always our justly prerogative.
One question Gordon gets asked a lot is, “Do you think Bigfoot exists”? His answer is not a straight forward one, because he, like most of us, has not had a personal encounter. He believes it is a possibility and even a likely one though. “Unfortunately we sometimes share this hobby, with those who use very little critical thinking and I am not a fan of that, he says. We have made leaps and bounds since the Dark Ages and I for one don’t feel the need to go back there in my search for an answer. The truth is out there and it resides in the real world. The place I like to hang my hat”.
Gordon has a Facebook fan page named “The Discerning Man’s Squatch” where he first began to ponder and speculate not only the existence of Sasquatch, but what it means to us and how it relates, to our understanding of ourselves. “These are the questions that many don’t ask and I feel compelled to ask them” he says.
Majoring in both History and Philosophy, he has a unique perspective that those subjects have brought to him and likes to remind himself of the phrases “Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it” and” I think therefore I am”. “We do have an inherent need for a boogeyman” he states. The need arises from our persistence to survive and keeps us from being careless when there are real dangers out there. Colorful stories keep those things close to our breast and help us to remind future generations to look before you leap, because there are real things out there with sharp teeth.” “That being said, he reminds us, that does not mean the colorful stories do not represent the real deal on occasions and in the case of Bigfoot, the deal has gotten a little more real for me, by doing some deep exploring into the topic.”
“I am lucky to live in the mountains of Colorado. An area where I can look out my window and see miles of thick trees that cover the hills. There have been sightings not far from my home and I absolutely love that! There is almost nothing more exciting to me, to think that the big guy with big feet could be lurking in my very own backyard. However it also has the secondary consequence of making me a little more jittery when I go camping solo with just my dog.”
Well, there may be people who are using Bigfoot to fill in what they want the world to be like.
Some of us just prefer the cold hard evidence that indicates: no imagining needed, he’s real.
DWA: Thanks for being the grump, so I could avoid the burden! While the “article” was touching, and actually mirrors my own projections RE: Bigfoot, I did laugh a couple of times.
Especially, “Bigfoot fights no wars” (paraphrasing, but true to content). I certainly hope they’re better than that. And probably they are better than that. However, if Bigfoots actually DO fight wars amongst themselves, there would be no way for us to know, either way.
I’m (sometimes) a sucker for such sentimentality, the article actually was quite absurd in its assumptions. People who harbor such assumptions may, in some way, be better than me. Good for them. I laughed out loud; I couldn’t help myself. Maybe it was my inner DNA emerging; hopefully not my inner some-other-Cryptomundians, who shall remain unnamed.
Again, thanks for playing the grump/grinch. Somebody had to. You saved me again, friend!
I don’t think we have a need for a hairy monster in our woods, I think we have a need for discerning fact from fiction. The question isn’t why do people believe in bigfoot, it’s does it exist or doesn’t it. Countless eyewitnesses separated by thousands of miles all agreeing on what they saw for over 200 years? That’s not an easy fact to ignore.