Coyote, ugly?

Recently on Facebook, I made a reply to someone who was upset that I took the sounds of a successful coyote hunt as something acceptable, where she herself would have done something to frustrate it.

Clearly it hits a nerve in many to present as being OK with carnivorous animals doing their thing. But we don't drive our Land Rover in the path of a hunting lion, chase sharks from their prey with subs, or interfere too much, if at all, with the global boil of things eating other things. We even contribute to it with our own kinds of often catastrophic hunting. 

But it hits a very tender nerve for many to hear a prey animal in its last moments at the claws and fangs of its predator. Of course, I feel that too, when I hear it. How can one not? Sound can trigger emotions, deep ones. And the sounds at the end of a chase can hit hard, unless one is calloused by training. 

It may be easier to take if it is something in the distance. But if a pet disappears, or worse, as has happened, then we are naturally in degrees of upset equal to the proximity of the emotional bond with what's lost. Nothing could be more natural. 

But there is nothing evil in the happening of animals hunting. When full, prey and predator can sometimes be seen in close proximity. There's even the video of the lioness putting an infant baboon back into the safety of a tree, though she had just killed its kin. This process in Nature is far more selective, kind, and useful than what we do as humans in too many instances. Animals don't kill for sport, nor do they raise other animals for slaughter or parts. 

Perhaps the actual cause of our revulsion when we hear or see the result of a hunt stems from our sanitized experience of the animal kingdom. That, and one more thing: we can, some of us, emotionally identify with the prey, and that reminds us of our own mortality. Prey therefore triggers the whole complex surrounding thoughts of our own demise, or the pain of loss of a loved one. Or simply the injustice an unfairness of life, despite its wonders. 

That is all hard to take, as we all have some sense of battle pertinent to our existence. There is no defense against the processes of Nature, save one: Being a good warrior. That means acceptance of what is, and doing one's best as far as one is able. Part of that can be to create and defend Life. Or to make Art, of any kind. At any rate, it has to do with living as a productive Spirit that transcends the appearances of inevitable decay and demise without denying it. Creativity is the only anti-entropic force there is. And essentially, we are that. If we weren't we couldn't experience Love. 

If anyone has read Castaneda's books on the way of Yaqui sorcerers, they might remember Carlos' character asking his mentor, Don Juan, the difference between an ordinary man and a warrior. Don Juan told him that "when an ordinary man meets an 'ally' (a terrifying spirit entity ) in the desert, he pees his pants and runs. When a warrior meets an 'ally,' he pees his pants, but stays." We are always in that kind of position, though we may not see it. And it is kind of the only choice we have; to run or to stay. Our emotions are wonderful guideposts, and ought be felt fully, but they are not the event itself, unless we let them carry us.