Growing up I saw a lot of Wiley Coyote cartoons. The coyote was sparring with the road runner and always ended up harmed in some way, and never caught the bird. These days in the news we are hearing that coyotes are proving more successful, catching more and more prey. Around Gainesville, Florida where I live there are reports that they are killing outdoor cats, and while visiting Canada, the newspapers told of how two coyotes attacked and killed singer Taylor Luciow. She had been hiking alone in a National Park when the two came upon her. The singer’s mother today asks that the coyotes be spared, saying “We take a calculated risk when spending time in nature’s fold – it’s the wildlife’s terrain.”
Coyotes, birds, cats, and humans all end up harmed in some way no matter how we live or die and this earth is all our terrain. How then do we negotiate this complex arrangement we call life? For me I see an example in the pain of this daughter and this mother. We risk to be in beauty and keep our hearts open to one another, no matter the loss. In this way we may dare to care.
