I hate Coyote lessons. Coyote lessons are experiences orchestrated by the other side which are designed to use humor and usually a good dose of humiliation to make you take a look at some hidden trait or unexamined attitude. They can come at any time and from anywhere.
This last one of mine has happened around the video game The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. I bought the game a couple of years ago because I thought the title was Wind Walker, which is my Native name, so when I got it home and realized my mistake I kind of lost interest. I wasn't until this past couple of weeks that I decided I would play the game for real.
So my daughter and I have spent every single night the last two weeks figuring out how to progress through the game. This is something she and I have done since the very first Zelda game came out in the mid 80's. We've been at this now for almost twenty years, and have developed a pretty good system for beating the game.
Finally after some 60 or 70 hours we get to the final battle where Link the Wind Waker saves Zelda and defeats Gannon. Except this time, Link doesn't fight Gannon on his own. He has to defeat Gannon with Zelda, and Zelda has this crazy scheme where she shoots the magic Light arrows at Link's shield and he deflects them at Gannon.
Defeating Gannon is not in my hands, it is in Zelda's hands, a character I don't control. I must react to her while not getting smashed to death by Gannon. I have no idea when she will shoot her arrows. After being slaughtered a good dozen times, getting more and more frustrated I started another game. My daughter starts laughing. She asks me if all of a sudden getting to the end battle is the same as winning the end battle. She then suggests I have one of our 'adopted' sons finish the battle as maybe I'm getting too old to have the necessary eye hand coordination.
I don't find her humor particularly funny, as I am feeling quite perturbed with this dastardly turn of events where I the hero am completely at the mercy of some twit.
Completely oblivious to my attitude towards Zelda the twit, yesterday I proceed to write those sentences about Michael serving Mary and all that stuff about complimentarity and fighting the Spirit of Domination.
Suddenly I see glaring similarities in the photo I used yesterday and the end game scenario in Wind Waker. I'm not liking the implications.
I have to give up my need to control and dominate the game and become Michael to Zelda's Mary. Refusal to take up my proper station is why I keep getting slaughtered. Something that would never happen to Michael.
In my mindless beserker attacks I never see Zelda shooting her arrows. I am never in position to deflect them. I am never in position to win the battle. I have too big a need to control the outcome myself. I hear Michael laughing in my mind telling me quite succinctly that in reality Zelda should get rid of Link the twit. Link quite obviously has unexamined control issues. I also hear the howl of a coyote.
I hate these coyote lessons. They hit way too close to home.
