Old Man Coyote decided that life would be a lot easier for him if all the easy marks in the world would announce themselves. He wouldn't have to work so hard at finding all the suckers that he could dupe. He thought long and hard about it and finally in a flash of sheer inspiration he came up with an answer. He invented the smiley face. Now all he had to do was look for the bumper stickers or lapel pins or that cute little face that people draw by their names, and he could easily go about his business.
I call the Sierra foothills above where I grew up Coyote’s landscape. In more primal times there were four main predators apart from man. They were grizzly bear, wolf, mountain lion, and coyote. Grizzly bear and wolf have been eliminated, although grizzly bear ironically still appears on our state flag.
Lion keeps to its secretive ways. I know that I am being watched, but I don’t quite know from where. Coyote just keeps on keeping on through guile and perseverance. We’re never quite able to put our finger on him. Coyote of course is the trickster of Native American myth, along with Crow. Ethnologists have always been trying to pin him down. He is this thing, but no, he’s that. Coyote is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle of the mind, the quantum trickster.
In the past, I have had an uneasy relationship with Coyote. I found it difficult to maintain a close relationship with a God that can allow Coyote to exist in the infinite wisdom of things. Where in the realm of love is there justification for some scurrilous Coyote who would just as soon take your money and laugh and run as do anything else? How do you maintain a relationship with that? Where are love, compassion, and kindness when Coyote is always lurking around?
I’ll tell you what I now know of old Coyote. Coyote represents our own capacities for constant self-deception and also represents God’s attempt to shock us out of our stupor of predictability. As soon as I think that I know something fully, Coyote will quickly, unceremoniously let me know that I don’t. If I am unawake, Coyote will steal me blind, but it is only because I am blind and asleep. He will always bite me in the ass if I am not aware. Always.
Article comments
1 - Mark Schannon
One of the most beautiful, enchanting articles I've read in a long, long time. My only complaint is that it's too short. You certainly know how to weave a web to capture the reader.
In Jameson Veritas
2 - Richard Marcus
Mark, if you liked this than you really should buy John's book a) because this is an expanded excerpt from it, and b)his whole book reads like this and much along the same lines.
Don't be frightened of Coyote, because that's when you are in serious trouble, repsect him, don't completly trust him, but always remember he thinks he's telling the truth, especially when he's lying. Truth exists for Coyote in the moment of talking, so everything is true while it's being spoken, it only becomes a lie after he's finished with it...he's a sneaky so and so that way...You may catch him with his tail in his mouth but never with his pants down.
Richard Marcus
3 - SonnyD
John: Confusion has set in. First you describe in "painful" detail what happens when you form an opinion. Then immediately give your opinion on the ability of the president to govern.
Have you taken into consideration how much a president, any president, is curtailed in accomplishing the goals he has in mind by the Congress?
Second, have you considered how much any president has to rely on the accuracy of others to provide information {intelligence} that he needs?
Finally, you say he hasn't sat by the trail and watched history go by. Agreed, he isn't a wise old yogi but how many wise old yogis do you see running for the office? If you can find one I'll vote for him!
4 - SonnyD
John: I forgot to add, I really enjoy your coyote stories.
5 - John Spivey
I thank all you guys for your comments. I have this coyote fantasy that a lot of people will circulate this story around so that as the President stumbles with his words one more time everyone will just look at each other knowingly and chuckle.
for SonnyD: A hunter who studies the habits of animals is not forming an opinion. I really don't have an ideology as such, I just study the President's actions and see a deer caught in the headlights. About the yogi thing...The leaders of the Plains tribes used to mark their shields for how many giveaways they had conducted. Imagine our leaders selected on how much they have given away rather than how much they have taken or allowed their friends to take. We the people are at fault for not selecting for wisdom in our leaders. And yes, there will be more Coyote stories.
6 - Christopher Rose
Nice story and I really liked your description of god.
7 - Mark Schannon
Richard, just bought the book on amazon--waiting impatiently for it to arrive!
In Jameson Veritas
8 - chantal stone
Another great article, John.
I bought the book the other day...I'm disappointed it hasn't arrived yet! I can't wait to get into it.
9 - Purple Tigress
It seems odd to bring in aikido without talking about the tanuki. The tanuki is the trickster of Japanese folklore and the fox is also a trickster although often changing form into that of a beautiful woman.
As for the coyote, he has adapted far better than other predators. With the loss of wolf packs and their geographic territories, the coyote has been allowed to spread geographically--even as far as New York. By cross-breeding with the dog, he has increased his fertility--the possibility of two litters a year instead of one.
His name doesn't instill people with the fear of the wolf or the grizzly and by being adaptable he has survived.
10 - John Spivey
My thanks to those who are parting with their hard earned money to support my writing. I do hope the book meets your needs and standards.
Purple Tigress--Although I know of O'Sensei's history and his relationship with Shinto, I know little of the stories of the kami. Tricksters exist in stories around the world, so they must serve a purpose. Fox is also a European trickster. I grew up near the foothills of the Sierra, so I rely on the stories that spring from that landscape.
11 - gonzo marx
domo orrigato John-san
..:::bows, hand over fist:::..
an excellent Insight into the Trickster, who has always been with Man...trying to show us the Way
why am i not suprised that you have played both akido and T'ai Chi?
namaste'
Excelsior!