Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 35

I I Lifestyle Decatur, Illinois Herald Review Sunda Januafy 31 1999 Commentary AGER ij? AJ wn JPi' 7ny Mi 04--- S'V OU K.c-'-y iir 1 Illustration: Jean Zerfowski -A TRACKING WHAT'S Resilience of Clinton inspires us Therapy doesn't work unless it's hard, and lessons aren't learned unless the learning hurts. That's why we might be grateful as a nation for what we've been through this year with our tainted president, William Jefferson Clinton. No year of my adult life as a citizen has been so tumultuous and emotional. Even Watergate seems, in comparison, clinical and impersonal and cool. A year ago, when I first typed the words "Monica Lewinsky" into a column, an Oval Office affair with an intern seemed reason enough to boot Clinton out.

"He's doomed," I typed. But a veteran editor wisely suggested I change it to "He seems doomed." Not only hasn't he been booted, but he's been boosted, elevated higher in opinion polls than any modern president. Maybe we don't trust him with our daughters, but we have faith in his stamina and resilience and hard work. In that, Bill Clinton has been an inspiration. Anyone whose shameful secrets have ever been exposed knows that sickening sensation that life is over.

The head rings with condemnation and expectations of doom: "No one will like me ever again. No one will hire me. No one will want to share an elevator with me." Clinton is proof: Your worst mistakes, exposed in detail beneath klieg lights, won't kill you. Some people will still shake your hand, cheer your ideas and admire your guts. And this is the best news some people will like you more because you slipped on the ice, fell on your butt, then scrambled to get up.

They'll help you stand again. They'll root for you. Bill Clinton is the 12-year-old kid who busts a window, denies he did, apologizes halfheartedly, is sent to his room, apologizes more forthrightly but sticks up for himself, too: "I didn't mean to!" And, he never cries or whines. "All right," Dad finally says. "You've suffered enough, and I think you've learned your lesson.

"Now let's go fishing," he says, squeezing his kid's shoulder. What Bill Clinton did, and what Ken Starr did in response, has been mesmerizing and uncomfortable to watch. It's also been a blessing. It forced us, for one thing, to define our ethical and political priorities. We decided we don't care about sexual sin.

Handed gooey details about one man's sex life, we handed them right back. How far we've come since Gary Hart's infidelity finished him. We overlook stains now, and even expect them, the way we're not surprised to see diners in blue jeans at four-star restaurants. We remain deeply divided about how serious Clinton's lies were. But many Americans who never thought about this stuff before have come to understand the fears and insecurities that motivate lies.

Every child in America has learned a huge lesson: Lying is the hard way out. And every adult has learned this one: The president is no icon but a complex human being, a pudgy package of passion, silliness, stupidity and smarts. No easy guy to figure out, like a lot of folks we know. Whenever Bill Clinton vacates the White House, he'll leave the institution of the presidency not weaker but stronger. It will be strong enough to stretch, and stretchy enough to accommodate the complexities of other men and women who, let's hope, will still dare seek it.

Susan Ager writes for the Detroit Free Press, Box 828, Detroit, MI 4823 1 Volume of mail prohibits personal replies. By TONY REID Staff Writer Loren Coleman, who grew up in Decatur, writes extensively about mysterious but unidentified creatures. Think Loch Ness monster. gives cryptozoology a failing grade. MacArthur biology teacher Steve Rayhill has been teaching for 30 years, and Big-foot is not on his curriculum.

"Science does not accept things for which there is no evidence," said Rayhill, 55. "And the evidence is pretty thin for some of these creatures. I think people want them to be in existence, but it's very doubtful." Coleman, meanwhile, pushes on regardless. He first got hooked on the subject when he was 12 and sat in his Decatur living room watching a movie on television called "Half Human," about the Abominable Snowman. His own high school science teachers told him it was all nonsense, but Coleman wasn't convinced.

"I wanted more and more information, and I must have written to 200 scientists all across the world," he recalled. "And then I began investigating local reports of mysterious animals, like those black panthers." He's been writing extensively on the weird and wonderful ever since but is no mere paper tiger. This summer he is due to sink below the peat-darkened waters of Scotland's Loch Ness in a submarine and go in search of the world's most famous monster. "We are going to try and swim up alongside the animal and get a tissue sample and hope he doesn't bite us," Coleman said. "It's very exciting." Want to take a bigger bite out of cryptozoology? Visit Coleman at www.

agate. netcryptozoocryptohome.html on the Web. ORTLAND, MAINE Want to look Decatur up in the encyclopedia? Check under for panther. "Decatur does seem to be a focus for black panther reports," said Loren Coleman, 51, who grew up in the city, graduated from MacArthur High School in 1965 and attended Southern Illinois University. "Around 1917, a mysterious big cat seen prowling around the city was actually given a nickname, And Decatur is also right on the edge of an area where little chimpanzee-like creatures I call them short for North American Apes have been sighted." You'll find them all listed in Coleman's encyclopedic new book, "The Cryptozool-ogy A-Z," which will be published by Simon and Schuster in July.

And, in April, keep your eyes peeled for "The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide," another Coleman book being published by Avon Books at $12.95. Cryptozoology, as the author patiently explains, is the study of hidden animals creatures, often of monstrous proportions, that are rumored to exist but for which there is no hard evidence. Perhaps it is appropriate that this seeker and chronicler of the bizarre, who teaches documentary film at the University of Southern Maine and sociology at St. Joseph's College in Portland, now lives and works in a state that's also home to horror writer Stephen King. But Coleman, who documents his books with extensive research and witness interviews, insists he isn't interested in fig- ments of anybody's warped imagination.

"A lot of the creatures I've researched are the subject of myth and legend," he said. "But beneath all of that smoke, sometimes, there is a little bit of fire." It's the fire that ignites Coleman's passion to seek out hard evidence of these monsters, evidence that will wipe the smiles from the faces of regular scientists busy giggling into their lab coats at the very idea of cryptozoologists. Joe Public, however, has been less skeptical. Previous Coleman books, with titles like "Creatures of the Outer Edge" and "Mysterious Encounters," have found enthusiastic audiences. "Cryptozoology is fascinating because it combines two interesting areas for people," Coleman said.

"No. 1 is natural history people love animals and animal stories and No. 2 is mysteries; people like mystery stories, and these are genuine mysteries of nature" Well, maybe. The scientific viewpoint at Coleman's high school alma mater "A lot of the creatures I've researched are the subject of myth and legend, but beneath all of that smoke, sometimes, there is a little bit of fire. Loren Coleman, cryptozoologist.