WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.440 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.440 --> 00:00:07.800 align:middle line:84% And for a few years, I was going to Kearney, Nebraska 00:00:07.800 --> 00:00:13.740 align:middle line:84% to watch the sandhill cranes migrate, and little did I know, 00:00:13.740 --> 00:00:18.370 align:middle line:84% that they migrate right here in Arizona. 00:00:18.370 --> 00:00:20.730 align:middle line:84% So there I went in the middle of nowhere on a-- 00:00:20.730 --> 00:00:25.230 align:middle line:84% practically a glider-- coming in on Kearney, Nebraska. 00:00:25.230 --> 00:00:27.270 align:middle line:84% But those cranes, they fascinated me, 00:00:27.270 --> 00:00:29.340 align:middle line:84% and actually doing that helped me. 00:00:29.340 --> 00:00:32.700 align:middle line:84% We found our word for the sandhill crane, [? sutor ?].. 00:00:32.700 --> 00:00:35.850 align:middle line:84% And it was a word that was lost, and so it took some digging. 00:00:35.850 --> 00:00:38.060 align:middle line:84% I mean, we didn't need it, because we hadn't seen one 00:00:38.060 --> 00:00:40.560 align:middle line:84% where I live in quite a while, because the river has changed 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:43.230 align:middle line:90% so much. 00:00:43.230 --> 00:00:45.090 align:middle line:84% But learning about the sandhill cranes and 00:00:45.090 --> 00:00:48.270 align:middle line:84% how those migratory patterns shifted, 00:00:48.270 --> 00:00:51.900 align:middle line:84% and how sometimes they slam into the sides of buildings 00:00:51.900 --> 00:00:55.170 align:middle line:84% because their world has changed so drastically, 00:00:55.170 --> 00:00:58.170 align:middle line:90% and they haven't managed that. 00:00:58.170 --> 00:01:00.930 align:middle line:84% So it was ironic that I went to this place 00:01:00.930 --> 00:01:04.200 align:middle line:84% to get away from home, to take a little bit of a break, 00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:09.660 align:middle line:84% and I ended up writing this because of what happened there. 00:01:09.660 --> 00:01:13.840 align:middle line:84% So it's called "Cranes, Mafiosos, and a Polaroid 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:14.340 align:middle line:90% Camera." 00:01:14.340 --> 00:01:17.070 align:middle line:90% 00:01:17.070 --> 00:01:20.910 align:middle line:84% I had a few days left of my stay at the crane sanctuary 00:01:20.910 --> 00:01:24.120 align:middle line:84% in Kearney, Nebraska when my brother called. 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:27.120 align:middle line:90% It was 3:24 AM. 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:28.560 align:middle line:90% It's me, he said. 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:30.090 align:middle line:90% It's your brother. 00:01:30.090 --> 00:01:33.330 align:middle line:84% He had taken apart another Polaroid camera, 00:01:33.330 --> 00:01:37.200 align:middle line:84% and needed me to explain how to put it back together. 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:41.460 align:middle line:84% His voice was a snare drum, knocking and quick. 00:01:41.460 --> 00:01:43.170 align:middle line:90% He was crying. 00:01:43.170 --> 00:01:45.270 align:middle line:84% I didn't want to wake the other visitors, 00:01:45.270 --> 00:01:48.670 align:middle line:84% and I knew he'd keep calling, hour after hour, 00:01:48.670 --> 00:01:53.670 align:middle line:84% day after day, lifetime after miserable lifetime, until I 00:01:53.670 --> 00:01:54.660 align:middle line:90% answered. 00:01:54.660 --> 00:01:56.430 align:middle line:90% I slid out of bed. 00:01:56.430 --> 00:01:57.930 align:middle line:90% Just tell me what to do. 00:01:57.930 --> 00:02:00.420 align:middle line:90% You know what to do, he pleaded. 00:02:00.420 --> 00:02:02.850 align:middle line:84% I should know how to help my brother by now. 00:02:02.850 --> 00:02:07.200 align:middle line:84% He and I have had this exact conversation before. 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:10.139 align:middle line:84% If I love him, if I really love him, 00:02:10.139 --> 00:02:14.700 align:middle line:84% why haven't I learned to reassemble a Polaroid camera. 00:02:14.700 --> 00:02:18.150 align:middle line:84% Instead, I told him about the sandhill cranes. 00:02:18.150 --> 00:02:22.800 align:middle line:84% The way they dance, moving into and giving way to one another, 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:26.820 align:middle line:84% bowing down, cresting, and collapsing their wings, necks, 00:02:26.820 --> 00:02:27.930 align:middle line:90% and shoulders. 00:02:27.930 --> 00:02:30.630 align:middle line:90% Silver curls of smokey rhythm. 00:02:30.630 --> 00:02:32.460 align:middle line:90% But he didn't believe me. 00:02:32.460 --> 00:02:35.850 align:middle line:84% My brother believes the mafia placed a transmitter deep 00:02:35.850 --> 00:02:38.340 align:middle line:84% within his Polaroid camera, but he can't 00:02:38.340 --> 00:02:40.590 align:middle line:90% believe in dancing cranes. 00:02:40.590 --> 00:02:42.840 align:middle line:84% You think this is a joke, he whispers. 00:02:42.840 --> 00:02:46.110 align:middle line:84% These are fucking mafiosos I'm talking about. 00:02:46.110 --> 00:02:48.360 align:middle line:90% You're probably next. 00:02:48.360 --> 00:02:50.340 align:middle line:90% He hung up on me. 00:02:50.340 --> 00:02:54.480 align:middle line:84% That dawn, another writer aimed her digital camera at the sky 00:02:54.480 --> 00:02:58.350 align:middle line:84% until the last of an island of late-rising cranes lifted 00:02:58.350 --> 00:03:00.070 align:middle line:90% into the metallic air. 00:03:00.070 --> 00:03:03.180 align:middle line:84% I couldn't take my eyes off the barrel of lens. 00:03:03.180 --> 00:03:07.140 align:middle line:84% Her finger, fast trigger, against the black skeleton 00:03:07.140 --> 00:03:08.340 align:middle line:90% of the camera. 00:03:08.340 --> 00:03:10.500 align:middle line:84% I wondered what it would look like cracked 00:03:10.500 --> 00:03:14.190 align:middle line:84% open to its upside-down mirrors and shiny levers. 00:03:14.190 --> 00:03:15.870 align:middle line:90% How many screws there were. 00:03:15.870 --> 00:03:18.750 align:middle line:84% How many lantern-lit cranes might come 00:03:18.750 --> 00:03:20.940 align:middle line:90% unfurling out of that cage. 00:03:20.940 --> 00:03:24.510 align:middle line:84% I wondered what I would look like if the darkened chambers 00:03:24.510 --> 00:03:26.490 align:middle line:90% of my body were unlocked. 00:03:26.490 --> 00:03:29.910 align:middle line:84% What streams of light might escape and reveal 00:03:29.910 --> 00:03:32.910 align:middle line:84% about the things I collect and hide. 00:03:32.910 --> 00:03:37.020 align:middle line:84% And is there a difference between aperture and wound? 00:03:37.020 --> 00:03:39.600 align:middle line:84% Mostly, I wondered where my brother 00:03:39.600 --> 00:03:43.520 align:middle line:84% keeps getting those goddamned Polaroid cameras. 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:45.302 align:middle line:90%