Why We Love Nessie

The legend of Nessie continues to capture our interest. How hard should we be trying to solve the mystery of Loch Ness's most famous resident?

Loch Ness may or may not be home to a monster. Stories of sightings have circulated for centuries but this mystery remains unsolved. Why does Nessie continue to fascinate us after all this time?

Nessie is a harmless "monster". Although many sightings have been reported, Nessie has never harmed anyone. If she is a "monster", she is of the "friendly" variety. If you are going to believe in a monster, let it be of the relatively safe variety. It's kind of like watching a horror movie or reading a book that is a bit scary but you know that no one *really* gets hurt. We get a bit of excitement without a lot of risk.

The Whole Jurassic Park Thing. One eyewitness account described Nessie as looking like a plesiosaur. As children, most of us went through the stage where we were fascinated by dinosaurs. It's almost like we feel that we missed out in some way because they became extinct before humans came on the scene. Who wouldn't want to visit a real-life Jurassic Park (as long as the T-Rex didn't try to make a meal of us)?

If Nessie is a type of plesiosaur, as some would theorize, this is our chance to see and study a living dinosaur. How cool would that be?

We Need Our Legends. In our modern times, where science seems to have solved a lot of mysteries, we still have a need for legends. Everything can't be boiled down to a simple scientific explanation. Legends remind us of the parts of our world that are wonderfully unexplained and, well, magical in a way. Logic and mystery can co-exist, like two sides of the same coin; we need that balance.

And that's why we love Nessie. And maybe that's why we shouldn't try too hard to solve this particular mystery, in my opinion.