Friday, September 25, 2009

Gone

While on the way to meet friends for a recent hike, I began contemplating the recent spate of celebrity deaths. Mary Traverse, Henry Gibson, Patrick Swayze, Ted Kennedy, Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. Had they eerily died in groups of three, or was I trying to make a superstitious connection… hmmm?

Commencing the hike I mentioned a CSI episode I watched the other night. A two year old repeat staring Ally Sheedy. “I’ve missed Ally”, I told my friends, wondering where she’s been. Then I explained that the episode was intriguing. The Ally Sheedy character believed that reptilians lurked beneath the surface. The character had committed several murders to rid the planet of these creatures. “Ah” said one of my friends with a nod. Come to find out, this friend of mine had spent many a dark night perusing the underground conspiracy sites, and knew about reptilians. She talked at great length about a group of conspirators firmly committed in their beliefs. I listened in fascination. They claim these reptilians emerge above ground through hidden holes. They have an agenda. They rein control over certain politicians… there’s even an interview published online with one! They are carnivorous and telepathic and may account for many of the missing person cases.

Then I noticed fresh deer tracks in the trail. An adolescent from the size of the hoof and it appeared to have done a little dance. I matched my feet in the direction of its prints and did a small side step circle, mimicking the direction the deer went. As I did my little two-step, I wondered what would possess a deer to do a dance? Then I saw what appeared to be a large cat paw. Poor deer.

When we finally reached the crest in the trail, I decided to take photos of the graffiti in the abandoned buildings. While clicking away, I reflected on the many reasons why people get attracted to conspiracies. It is certainly understandable how cases can be built upon the unusual circumstances surrounding events from 9/11, JFK’s assassination, Apollo moon landing, Roswell, Philadelphia Experiment… but what about the weird? Chemtrails, Illuminati, Reptilians… insidious plots to harm us. Besides the entertainment we get theorizing their evil agendas, it’s been suggested we are subconsciously drawn to them because they distract us from our fears from contemplating our own mortality... hmmmm.

Oh yeah… Ally Sheedy… she seems to have just slipped off the face of the earth. .... S.



2 comments:

Kim Fritz said...

Or perhaps conspiracy theories keep us from accepting the fact that life really is random—and there's not a damn thing we can do about it.

Charles Pompilius said...

Wonderful story. I too enjoy conspiracy theories, but not all equally. Roswell doesn't hold up, the closest star is just too far away. Bigfoot, maybe. It's not entirely unreasonable. As you learned when you followed the deer tracks,the question always is: what evidence supports the theory? When you saw the cat tracks, you knew what happened to the deer. No reptiles were necessary.