I’ve been walking a fine line as of late. There still lies within me a dragon, its nostrils flaring with red embers, eyes sharp in the dark. The need to explore and investigate and be true to what calls to me. But when I go out, there is so much noise. The chaos makes it simpler to go back to the cave and just rest. There is peace in the silence of the depths. The worst part is you take a step back and you wonder ‘Does it even matter?”.
Blogging is always a quiet voice. Especially in contrast to the loud YouTube and short screaming TikToks. The effort one puts in the comments to say “Well actually…” is shouted down by those that are so painfully wrong that they are indignant in their ignorance. There was a TikTok I will not publish here. The last thing this creator needs is views. It was based on a clip of Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd talking about a land mass “the size of the United States” that had yet to be explored. This clip is easily found online. It referred to East Antarctica, which absolutely has been mapped out since then. The TikTok was named “Admiral Bird’s Lost Interview.” It featured a young man green-screened in saying “Alright y’all, Birdie spittin straight facts.” Additionally, the info blurb said “The footage has finally been found!” I commented, “It’s Admiral Byrd…and he was talking about East Antarctica.” What followed was a comment that I was “brainwashed”, and “a Mason that can’t be trusted.” (which is rather hilarious now that I have considered my profile picture.)
One of my favorite TikTok creators is The Twilight Emporium. Jeremy has been in the business. He meets these silly creators head on. This includes those ladies that tell you “Don’t look in the trees…” but definitely “buy our merch”. While telling straight-on Creepy Pastas about Appalachia and incorporating outside Indigenous legends that have nothing to do with our area. Here is a prime example:
You know that UFOs are being shot down everywhere if you’ve been watching the news at all this week. This is a very good example of being careful where you get your news. If something is flying around and it hasn’t been identified, it’s a UFO. This has nothing to do with extraterrestrials. While he’s not one of my favorite personalities, I do recommend the Weaponized Podcast with Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp. They provide in-depth coverage of what the DOD has classified as true unknown crafts. Creepily enough, they also touched on the current balloon issue weeks before it happened.
But it’s not all bad things happening. Just this week, I saw posts of an Eagle Scout candidate here in the county. He made his Eagle Project the cleaning up of a cemetery. This included digging out some stones that had fallen and been completely covered with earth. They were cleaned and replaced. It does the heart good to see that younger generations are getting into cemetery preservation. (post can be found on the Caretaker page).
Spring is coming soon and with it my yearly promise to get out and explore more. That is what keeps the dragon’s fire lit. The promise of discovering the Truth. It’s not meant for everyone. I was watching an excellent movie this weekend called “Vengeance”. It’s about a podcaster who doesn’t know what his podcast is supposed to be about. Through a series of mistakes, he ends up being perceived as the boyfriend of a girl who has passed away. He flies to Texas to attend her funeral. It’s a funny movie but the ending absolutely floored me. (Spoilers ahead so if you haven’t seen the movie, go watch it and come back. I promise I’ll still be here.)
In the end, there is a monologue by the person responsible for the girl’s death. The podcaster actually gets his confession on tape. As a viewer you have a sense of justice, that it all works out…then the writer/director absolutely floors with this speech:
“Brilliant. You got it. You got it all, that’s a story about America. Let me know if you need me to re-record anything, or like rephrase things because I can do that too. You and I are going to be sitting on a panel talking about this. I want it to be great. We both know how this works, right? I mean at first everyone is gonna think you got your bad guy. Nobody is going to let it be that simple. Everyone is going to have to have their take, because that’s how it works now. Everyone has a take. See, if you don’t have a take you don’t have a voice. If you don’t have a voice, you don’t exist.
So yeah, at first everyone is going to blame me. But then someone is gonna say, “Wait a second…There is a big difference between leaving someone to die and killing somebody.” Then they are gonna turn to you. What were you doing here in the first place? What was your relationship with her? Why would you exploit her grieving family? Those characters…I mean that’s what they are gonna be. Famous Characters. Not famous people. Then they are going to blame the family. Oh, I hope they are ready for that. They’ll blame the President…then the last President…then they’ll start in with the conspiracy theories. You know, then someone will refute the conspiracy theories. And then one side will make their version like their cause…and the other side will take the other side…just to take the other side….and on and on. Until your story proves to be the defining truth of our time.
Which is: Everything means Everything, so nothing means anything.
This reminded me of a podcast that was released last year about my neck of the woods. In the six-part series, the podcaster in question returned to Scott County. He followed up on an article he wrote in GQ about the death of Sheriff’s Deputy John-John Yancy. I recommend the podcast for its inside look at the case. However, the podcast also brought that quote to mind. People I knew weren’t people, they were characters to outsiders. That thin line between does the story need to be told vs. What are the repercussions if it is? What are the repercussions if it is not? Everyone who is giving their voice should consider that. We should learn from the Paranormal Investigators. They went to a cemetery on a backroad in Campbell County. This action led to rampant destruction and vandalism. It allegedly made it “the most haunted place in Tennessee on the internet.” We should contemplate the outcome for the grave. This grave is the subject of our TikTok, which claims a witch is buried in its depths. It’s easy to just go with it, especially if it gives us views…we can always correct it later, right?
There is a famous adage: “Nobody reads the retraction.” Perhaps that is correct. But there needs to be a record, as in “Vengeance” sometimes the truth does matter. Sometimes we need to show the good things among all the bad. There needs to be a path of breadcrumbs for the seekers. Of responsibility in what we put out into the world. But we need to leave it there to be discovered. For the ones that want to find the truth, because it is out there.
BYRD OF ILL OMEN 