The Shadow guy had repeated the same explanation for the doppelgänger phenomenon and other unexplained events that were unique to Bolder. He told Frank “Time flows like a river. Sometimes water forms eddies and pools around transient objects and allow for something wonderful to be exposed or to join the river itself.” Which really told him nothing and he might as well have recited the standard mattress tag removal mantra that came with all mattresses.
In all honesty the threat of prosecution gave the tag more substance than the Shadow’s bland verbiage. His soliloquy was merely a placeholder for the following:
During the 1960’s Boulder became a happening place for the counter culture movement in America. Being a college town, it was a fertile field to grow seeds of contradiction. Throw in the Beat influence of Allen Ginsberg, Naropa University and the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, the make peace not war vibe and Boulder embraced and fostered the counter culture with loving arms. The movement spread into education with the forming of the Community Free School in the early 70’s.
When the pioneer of the free school was elected to the Boulder City Council, the counter culture had firmly established roots in the community and the Republic of Boulder was born. The energy that created and inspired this movement became its own entity, a spirit if you will.
The Republic sustained this energy at varying levels across the years, waxing and waning with the zeitgeist of the decades. Thru the years the scions of various counter culture moments capturing mind body and spirit, grew businesses, became successful and eventually sold out to corporations for the promise of early retirement or the desire to create something new.
The sellout process caused the creative spirit to break apart. Some of it drifted off to inspire counter culture movements in other locations. Some of it formed the unexplained phenomenon that gives Boulder a flavor unique to each observer and as special to them as their favorite fried chicken or tofu recipe.
The unusual number of doppelgängers was the result of the spirit
attracting people similar in appearance to Boulder. “Similar” is really understating the fact that these people could be twins.
But what about this Shadow Guy? The entity known as the Shadow Guy consists of some of the orphaned counterculture spirit. It is looking for a new movement to inspire or a new local phenomenon to create. It is looking for purpose. It remains to be seen how long it will remain in its present form or if it will drift off to inspire a different town in another land. Currently it occupies space on a mural located on bike trail underpass. It breaks free from time to time in search of inspiration and to do good deeds.