Coyote not so ugly . . .

For awhile now I have had the same morning ritual. I get up about 6:00 a.m., grind my coffee beans, put on the coffee, prepare my breakfast du jour, and sit on the sofa, where I can look out the window up into the forested hillside right behind my house. In the fall and winter I enjoyed the daily visit of the deer that grazed at the edge of the weeds I like to call my back yard.



As warm weather has arrived the deer don't join me anymore. I still enjoy watching the first rays of morning light the hillside. Every morning is different. This morning was really different. As I sat down with my coffee I looked out the window. I had a new guest for morning coffee. It was a coyote. He stood there, very still. He stayed for several minutes before turning and heading back into the woods.



I suffer from a prejudice about coyotes. Let's face it. They do not have a good image. Their most famous representative is Wiley Coyote, of Roadrunner fame, who was always strapping some Acme explosive device to his body, or in the path of the roadrunner, resulting in his great misfortune. In the non-cartoon world the coyote is even more maligned. Farmers hate coyotes. Lately, even suburbanites have reported coyotes roaming in the subdivisions, scavenging for food or feasting on small family pets.



But this morning, as the coyote stood as still as a statue for several minutes, he looked noble. His coat was a golden brown, his eyes were bright, and his mouth looked like it had been frozen in a perpetual smile, like a character from Alice Through the Looking Glass.



My prejudice is based on truth. (Not the Wiley Coyote image. I know that's not real.) Coyotes do cause trouble for farmers. They do occasionally dine on family pets. They can be a nuisance as they invade the suburbs.



But coyotes are not bad or evil. They are just coyotes. And they rank right up there with cockroaches and armadillos at being incredibly adaptive, which has allowed them not only to survive, but to thrive.



But we often define evil as something or someone whose interests seem contrary to ours. I don't mean to glorify coyotes. For all I know they may consider humans to be evil because our interests seem contrary to theirs.



We are living in a time when we must deal with others whose interests seem contrary to ours. One of the reasons our gas prices are high is because all those pesky people in China and India have the audacity to think they might want to drive automobiles to work. Folks in Georgia want to take too much water out of the river before it gets to Alabama and Florida. Textile workers in the southeastern part of the U.S. lost their jobs to workers in southeast Asia. Automobile manufacturing jobs have moved out of Detroit to foreign places like Japan or Alabama. A Republican cannot be President if a Democrat wins the election. A Democrat cannot be President if a Republican wins the election. I could go on, but iI won't. Feel free to think of a few examples that may come to your mind.

But in our hearts we know that there is nothing inherently evil about people in China, India, Georgia, southeast Asia, Japan or Alabama. There is nothing inherently evil about Republicans or Democrats. There is nothing inherently evil about any of us who share this earthly home.

Humans are not inherently evil. Sometimes we are noble. Sometimes we are scavengers. Sometimes we do crazy things like trying to blow each other up. Sometimes we adapt to survive in tough circumstances.

Humans are not evil. We are just human. All of us. If we could all adapt to that notion, we might not only survive, we might thrive.