WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.540 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.540 --> 00:00:05.730 align:middle line:84% The first one is called "Unidentified Flying Object," 00:00:05.730 --> 00:00:07.500 align:middle line:90% for Will. 00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:15.960 align:middle line:84% One: the elements, if not cruel, can seem inhospitable. 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:17.730 align:middle line:84% But the trail to the Grand Canyon 00:00:17.730 --> 00:00:21.750 align:middle line:84% proved to be five kind miles of switchback. 00:00:21.750 --> 00:00:25.110 align:middle line:84% Just glimpses of vista acclimating us 00:00:25.110 --> 00:00:27.300 align:middle line:90% to the tremendous. 00:00:27.300 --> 00:00:31.320 align:middle line:84% At the North Rim, 1/40 of that foreign space 00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:34.470 align:middle line:90% was enough to overwhelm. 00:00:34.470 --> 00:00:38.250 align:middle line:84% At least there were swallows, their aerial ballet. 00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:41.130 align:middle line:84% One whizzing past us toward the Canyon floor 00:00:41.130 --> 00:00:45.300 align:middle line:84% faster than a hawk after a little snack. 00:00:45.300 --> 00:00:49.530 align:middle line:84% We needed to return to a habitat and Sedona 00:00:49.530 --> 00:00:52.440 align:middle line:90% obliged with its smaller scale. 00:00:52.440 --> 00:00:55.620 align:middle line:84% Oak Creek Canyon, moss green pools, 00:00:55.620 --> 00:00:59.160 align:middle line:84% meadows surrounding our waists with the intense one 00:00:59.160 --> 00:01:04.080 align:middle line:84% mindedness of a home tribe circling the white intruders. 00:01:04.080 --> 00:01:07.050 align:middle line:90% But friendly this time. 00:01:07.050 --> 00:01:09.720 align:middle line:84% A miniature waterfall chilled us awake 00:01:09.720 --> 00:01:15.570 align:middle line:84% before we crawled grinning like amphibians onto warm rocks. 00:01:15.570 --> 00:01:18.810 align:middle line:84% The dragonflies would light on the back of a hand 00:01:18.810 --> 00:01:23.110 align:middle line:84% just long enough for us to study them. 00:01:23.110 --> 00:01:28.500 align:middle line:84% And one day, serendipity, a kind of trail guide was provided us. 00:01:28.500 --> 00:01:31.950 align:middle line:84% A young woman named Lisa who appeared in the woods 00:01:31.950 --> 00:01:33.690 align:middle line:90% like a doe. 00:01:33.690 --> 00:01:38.670 align:middle line:84% Eyes dark, limbs delicate, the center of stillness, 00:01:38.670 --> 00:01:40.530 align:middle line:90% but unafraid. 00:01:40.530 --> 00:01:43.980 align:middle line:84% She told us of wild asparagus, raspberries 00:01:43.980 --> 00:01:47.190 align:middle line:84% ripening, the blackberries rampant right 00:01:47.190 --> 00:01:49.740 align:middle line:90% there for the taking. 00:01:49.740 --> 00:01:54.030 align:middle line:84% She showed us the tattoo near her left breast, a heart lifted 00:01:54.030 --> 00:01:56.100 align:middle line:90% up by slender wings. 00:01:56.100 --> 00:02:00.090 align:middle line:84% The symbol, she said, for lasting freedom. 00:02:00.090 --> 00:02:04.320 align:middle line:84% And later, bathing in the river: I feel so unnatural 00:02:04.320 --> 00:02:07.500 align:middle line:90% when I'm wearing clothes. 00:02:07.500 --> 00:02:10.830 align:middle line:84% Desire stripped us of many pretensions. 00:02:10.830 --> 00:02:14.520 align:middle line:84% But we weren't wild enough to touch her. 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:16.950 align:middle line:84% She led us down to the apple orchard. 00:02:16.950 --> 00:02:19.890 align:middle line:84% Innocence, I thought, leading us back 00:02:19.890 --> 00:02:23.790 align:middle line:90% to innocence and not temptation. 00:02:23.790 --> 00:02:26.820 align:middle line:84% But we couldn't follow her all the way in. 00:02:26.820 --> 00:02:28.650 align:middle line:90% We didn't have time. 00:02:28.650 --> 00:02:32.260 align:middle line:90% That old complaint. 00:02:32.260 --> 00:02:37.910 align:middle line:84% Two: sundown on the interstate, we're creatures in transit, 00:02:37.910 --> 00:02:41.120 align:middle line:84% alert, herding past the red of mesas, 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:45.950 align:middle line:84% the blackish green of chaparral, not speaking unless in danger. 00:02:45.950 --> 00:02:49.850 align:middle line:84% Not stopping while the way ahead is clearly marked. 00:02:49.850 --> 00:02:54.230 align:middle line:84% We'd just passed a ranch called Back O' Beyond. 00:02:54.230 --> 00:02:56.450 align:middle line:90% And that's exactly where we are. 00:02:56.450 --> 00:02:59.420 align:middle line:84% Long past through the looking glass, far 00:02:59.420 --> 00:03:02.660 align:middle line:90% from our warped reflections. 00:03:02.660 --> 00:03:04.640 align:middle line:84% And now, that sudden sphere of light 00:03:04.640 --> 00:03:06.920 align:middle line:84% too low on the horizon to be a star, 00:03:06.920 --> 00:03:08.990 align:middle line:84% too large and bright for a planet. 00:03:08.990 --> 00:03:11.690 align:middle line:90% What the hell is that? 00:03:11.690 --> 00:03:13.640 align:middle line:84% What should we call the widening beam? 00:03:13.640 --> 00:03:16.640 align:middle line:84% It emits Earthward in those swirling vapors 00:03:16.640 --> 00:03:19.250 align:middle line:90% we've seen somewhere before. 00:03:19.250 --> 00:03:22.790 align:middle line:84% Like fumaroles before the volcano blows, 00:03:22.790 --> 00:03:25.010 align:middle line:84% or the back lighted steam of city sewers 00:03:25.010 --> 00:03:29.360 align:middle line:84% when passion is nowhere else in sight. 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:31.800 align:middle line:84% Is this what Lisa meant when she said: 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:36.350 align:middle line:84% I swear there's real sanity in the open air? 00:03:36.350 --> 00:03:39.890 align:middle line:84% Now, the tractor beam is swallowed up by its source, 00:03:39.890 --> 00:03:42.500 align:middle line:90% and the luminous mists follow. 00:03:42.500 --> 00:03:48.410 align:middle line:84% And it all recedes into the depth of atmosphere. 00:03:48.410 --> 00:03:52.610 align:middle line:84% Much as we vanished at the canyon's north rim looking 00:03:52.610 --> 00:03:56.780 align:middle line:84% down and down, and later dissolved 00:03:56.780 --> 00:04:00.980 align:middle line:84% in the desert's middle distance, looking for that one site 00:04:00.980 --> 00:04:05.765 align:middle line:84% where our spirits might lift again and not feel so alien. 00:04:05.765 --> 00:04:10.150 align:middle line:90% 00:04:10.150 --> 00:04:12.680 align:middle line:90% I told my father about this. 00:04:12.680 --> 00:04:14.830 align:middle line:90% And he said, yeah, right. 00:04:14.830 --> 00:04:17.380 align:middle line:90% And I said, what do you mean? 00:04:17.380 --> 00:04:18.490 align:middle line:90% You saw a UFO. 00:04:18.490 --> 00:04:23.470 align:middle line:84% And I said, Dad, what's the definition of a UFO? 00:04:23.470 --> 00:04:26.200 align:middle line:84% And he said it's an Unidentified Flying Object. 00:04:26.200 --> 00:04:29.160 align:middle line:90% And I said, thank you.