Big shoes to fill

Editorial Comment from Lorianna Dovali, The Discerning Man's Sasquatch

Big shoes to fill

 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!