Blog Love Omega Glee: The Coyote Solution (9 July 2012)

The Coyote looks up and down the street. Blinking in the daylight and yawning, he stands where the walk from his house meets the public sidewalk. A breeze brushes the branches of nearby trees and feels good on his face, but it feels odd to be outside without his furry Coyote mask. He has decided to retire from being a vigilante. The meeting with The Justice Junto Of Ohio, and an even more disastrous superhero teamup with Chip-Chop, resulting in his wolf tie being cut in half, convinced him to put away his costume and nightly patrol. He was starting to question his sanity (admittedly, most people would have done this before dressing up as a coyote and trying to fight crime) and he didn't make a dent in the world's rudeness anyway. People are as rude as ever. Now, he accustoms himself to being on a daytime schedule again, and will see if any better solutions exist for making the world a more polite place. Better solutions than just beating rude people up, that is, which, however cathartic for The Coyote, didn't seem to work very well in the long view.

To that end, he's decided to walk to the library on this beautiful day. He intends on checking out a book by P. M. Forni entitled The Civility Solution: What To Do When People Are Rude, which might help him deal with people without manners, and let him know if he himself has any failings where rudeness is concerned (The Coyote would howl if he himself were rude). He could have accessed the book online, but The Coyote wants to challenge himself and get used to dealing with people again so he has decided to borrow the book from the library.

Libraries are very polite places for the most part, so he believes this will be a good way to ease himself back into society.

However, getting there is the problem.

He could have driven, but driving seems to amplify the solipsism of people, attaching rudeness to a ton or two of metal and plastic. People deceive themselves into thinking that they are hermetically sealed inside their individual automobiles and thus are detached from the rest of the world, meaning they can do whatever they want and God help anyone else on the road. Move or be run over, baby! Yet, those people typically didn't build the road they drive on, nor the car, nor anything else they need to get anywhere. For all those things, they are dependent on other people. Yet, when they drive, they act as if no one else exists except them.

No, The Coyote would work his way up to taking The Coyotemobile out.

Not that walking is much better. People are still rude, but the pace of the rudeness is slower. That seems the best he can hope for today, alas.

Where does all this rudeness come from? Aren't people taught basic manners anymore, or have brains enough to figure them out of standard human decency? Do the schools just assume that these things are taught in the home or church, when for a lot of people they aren't anymore, carving out the "civil" from civilization? Is it from being raised in a culture that measured everything in terms of dollars, with true politeness being trampled under the weight of billions of insincere "Have a nice day"s oiling commercial transactions? Whatever the case, someone should teach the kids and about half the adults some basic manners.

And it's not like The Coyote has high standards. He isn't a snob. He doesn't care how people dress or what eating utensil they use. It is more basic than that. Say, like when he goes to see a movie based on one of his favorite comic book characters and he's waited a lifetime to see one of his heroes on the big screen, please don't have a cell phone conversation in the theater the entire time during the movie. The Coyote didn't pay money to hear you tell your friend about your boring day at work.

Or if you drive a motorcycle, don't park it in the middle of the sidewalk so the guy down the street who's in a wheelchair can't get past. Use your brain and park it on the side of the driveway.

Or don't bark at someone on the street randomly.

Yes, bark.

No, it wasn't a dog.

It's no wonder The Coyote hid inside his lair for so long. Well, now he's stepping back out into the world.

All he needs to do is take that first step onto the sidewalk.

The Coyote looks up and down his street.

Blog Love Omega Glee is a novel by Wred Fright about two bloggers who fall in love while the world falls apart, which is being serialized on his blog. To start reading from the beginning or read another installment, please visit Blog Love Omega Glee Central on WredFright.Com. If you like what you've read, or you've read all of Blog Love Omega Glee and want more Fright, then please read his first novel, which is available in print and as an ebook.