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Lessons From Coyote |
| The story that I chose was "Coyote Steals the Sun and Moon," an old Zuni myth. The story goes like this: |
In a time where there was no day or night, animals did as they pleased and lived as they wanted to live. Coyote, who was a lazy hunter, came up with the idea to pair himself with the very skilled Eagle, by duping Eagle into believing that what one can catch alone, two can catch better. Of course, eventually Eagle gets wise to the set-up, and tells Coyote he has to start pulling his own weight. Coyote first debates conning big, dumb, old Bear into supplying his share of the bargain with Eagle, but he rejects the idea, knowing that Eagle will be far too keen to believe that Bear was the mastermind behind the whole affair. Coyote then makes an elaborate argument that his vision really isn't strong enough for hunting and that if they could find some source of light, it would change their luck forever. Eagle and Coyote go on a grand journey through the heart of the land, braving deep caverns, raging rivers, steep mountains, and dense forests to reach the place of the Kachinas. There, after such a long journey, Coyote and Eagle debate whether they should steal the Sun and Moon, or ask for permission to take them. Coyote concedes that Eagle is right and they should get permission, and sends Eagle to look for the Kachinas in the opposite direction. As Eagle goes off to search, Coyote plucks from his tail a single feather. Coyote then steals the Sun and Moon and leaves the feather in the circle where they had been kept so that the blame falls to Eagle. After a harrowing escape, Coyote's curiosity gets the better of him and he unwittingly releases both Sun and Moon into the sky by opening the boxes that contain them. The very day that I made my discovery of this story, the first of several strange events occurred that seemed to affirm the power of my find. I received an e-mail at my work account, one of a dozen that I received daily relating to the chores for the security staff. This one, however, stood out in context. Someone had broken into the Customer Service office on over-nights. This was an offense of serious concern to my supervisors, because the CS offices contained a wealth of valuable, confidential information. The strangest aspect of this incident, the e-mail attested, was that no information had been taken; all the intruder had done was change computer settings such as screen colors and font sizes, rearrange the furniture, and eat a stash of candy. Over the following two weeks, as more incidents of a similar nature occurred, my supervisors began applying serious pressure on us to catch the pranksters. I was assigned graveyard hours to conduct extended security rounds of the facility. |
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"There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there. The other is to walk around the whole world till we come back to the same place ..."
G. K. Chesterton
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