"God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy."

I don't know, yes indeed, and amen.

Sometimes things seem to finally be going my way and just at the last second, that which I really want (okay, what I think I want) is snatched away from at the last second. So close that I can taste it, and then like a carrot on a string yanked just out of reach. Not gone. Nope, just close enough that I can see it, smell it, and oh yes desire it. So I get to thinking, maybe, just maybe there is a god, and he is indeed fucking with me. I picture god as a wiley coyote, a trickster god playing games with the little sheep running around bleeting about out "amen" or "save me"! Perhaps the great Coyote is trying to severe us from our attachments - our tightly held desire to understand, plan, and control.

I had an argument this past week with someone who accused me of never planning. Naturally they were both wrong and right. I plan, but I am seldom so committed to my plans that I can't alter them according to changing circumstance or let them go altogether. I don't see that life is something that I can control, only experience. Plans held onto too tightly are often the cause of much disappointment and bitterness in life. I love the story of the Taoist farmer, and I believe the great Coyote would find much to be admired him (if the Coyote does indeed seek to free us from our attachments).

So in taking instruction from the humble Taoist farmer I see my plans have fallen to dust, my desires have been thwarted, and yet my life continues and I breath and I adjust and I accept. Perhaps the Great Coyote is good, and perhaps he is nothing more than a mental construct to help me along. Regardless, the reality of the Coyote is not my concern as much as the lesson's learned.




The Taoist Farmer

There was once a Taoist farmer. One day the Taoist farmer’s only horse broke out of the corral and ran away. The farmer’s neighbors, all hearing of the horse running away, came to the Taoist farmer’s house to view the corral. As they stood there, the neighbors all said, "Oh what bad luck!" The Taoist farmer replied, "Maybe."

About a week later, the horse returned bringing with it a whole herd of wild horses, which the Taoist farmer and his son quickly corralled. The neighbors, hearing of the corralling of the horses, came to see for themselves. As they stood there looking at the corral filled with horses, the neighbors said, "Oh what good luck!" The Taoist farmer replied, "Maybe."

At that same time in China, there was a war going on between two rival warlords. The warlord of the Taoist farmer’s village was involved in this war. In need of more soldiers, he sent one of his captains to the village to conscript young men to fight in the war. When the captain came to take the Taoist farmer’s son he found a young man with a broken leg who was delirious with fever. Knowing there was no way the son could fight, the captain left him there. A few days later, the son’s fever broke. The neighbors, hearing of the son’s not being taken to fight in the war and of his return to good health, all came to see him. As they stood there, each one said, "Oh what good luck!" The Taoist farmer replied, "Maybe."