Dr. Jedidiah’s Diary
Dr. Jedidiah is a psychiatrist who loves
traveling, meeting new people, and exploring different cultures. As a single
father who lost his wife to drug overdose 10 years ago, he has not been his old
perky self for the last decade. During those hard years, he has met hundreds
of, thousands of people from various walks of life around all over the world.
Meeting new people and listening to their stories outside his office have given
him different feelings from the ones through the formal encounter groups or
being truly honest with himself. Here is Dr. Jedidiah’s monologue that has left
him with some food for thoughts in life…. or a fodder to justify his own
mistakes in the past.
Episode #87. In search of Big Foot
Daniel was not ready for the regular counseling at my
office even after two years of staying in touch since we had first met at the
Summer hippie festival in Emerald Triangle. When I asked him for the
last time to see me at my psychiatrist clinic, he gave a flat refusal to my
suggestion and said “You still think I am crazy, don’t you? But I know I will
get him some day…before I die.” I felt frustrated, but saw the unflustered
conviction in his eyes again. Daniel was a firm believer in the existence of Big
Foot, the huge violent monster in the woods of Northern California. I was
thinking of him as an addle-headed chaser of such weird mysticism, but there
was more to his belief than meets the eye.
Daniel’s parents got divorced and left when he was five, and
he was raised by his devoted grandparents on his mother’s side. Since they were
growing cannabis, they would hold a hippie festival
and a cheerful hootenanny every summer right there in their place near
Spy Rock. Daniel’s grandparents would make some money by selling pot to the
zealous anti-war youths and the lovers of liberal life from different regions throughout
this country. Among those young ones who would come to the event were a group
of Hispanics and Native Americans with a big dream of farming their own
marijuana in the area. They were not welcomed by Daniel’s grandparents who had
been tasting the joy of making money profusely out of their own produce. The
travelers staying in Daniel’s grandparents’ guest house praised in chorus their
special dinner trout meunière. They were
like “Whoa! This fish tastes so addictive! What did they put in it?.....Could
be some cannabis.” After dinner, they used to sit around a bonfire with a guitar
and stayed up all night, descanting upon the mythical being that’s possibly
living in the woods. Daniel’s grandparents would lose their smile each time
they hear their guests talking and singing about the Big Foot in the woods, and
Daniel would say that he will catch the monster some day and kill him on the
spot.
When I saw Daniel for the last time at his grandparents’
place in Spy Rock, I told him about the documentary film about Sasquatch,
the Big Foot. The film approached the murder cases in the Emerald Triangle
region from a realistic angle. People living there had believed the murderer
was the Big Foot from the woods. According to the documentary film, the killers
were none other than Cannabis farmers in that fertile area who wished to leave
no stone unturned to keep the outsiders with the same big dream of making
money out of marihuana from their resources. Daniel looked me in the eye for
two minutes and said “Now we’re on the same page. You don’t think I am insane
anymore, right? I am not one of those deranged by smoking pot who would get shell-shocked
by the unforeseen Sasquatch. What I’ve been trying hard to catch is a human
murderer……and I hope that it wasn’t somebody I know here.” I know Daniel’s grandparents
are such earnest and loving menschs, but deep down inside, I felt myself
trembling with fear.
Expressions
1.
Emerald Triangle: The
Emerald Triangle is a region in Northern California
2. unflustered:
unperturbed/unaffected
3.
Big Foot: Sasquatch, also called Bigfoot,
(from Salish se’sxac: “wild men”) a large, hairy, humanlike creature believed
by some people to exist in the northwestern United States and western Canada.
4.
addle-headed: eccentrically
or annoyingly confused, silly, or stupid
5.
There was more to ….. than meets the
eye: It is said when you think a situation is not as simple as
it seems to be. This whole business is very puzzling.
6.
Cannabis: The
word “marijuana” refers to parts of or products from the plant Cannabis sativa
that contain substantial amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)
7.
hootenanny: an
informal gathering with folk music and sometimes dancing
8. pot:
marijuana/
weed
9.
meunière: (especially
of fish) cooked or served in lightly browned butter with lemon juice and
parsley
10. to descant upon something: to
sing/play/comment/or discourse about something
11. Sasquatch: an
abominable ape-like monster/ Big Foot
12. to leave no stone unturned: try
every possible course of action in order to achieve something
13. shell-shocked: shocked
or confused because of a sudden alarming experience
14. mensch: a
person of integrity and honor
