WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.970 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.970 --> 00:00:05.850 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much, Dick. 00:00:05.850 --> 00:00:08.910 align:middle line:84% We're trying out some new satellite sound system here. 00:00:08.910 --> 00:00:11.760 align:middle line:90% Is the sound good all the way? 00:00:11.760 --> 00:00:13.270 align:middle line:90% Great. 00:00:13.270 --> 00:00:17.730 align:middle line:84% It really is an honor to be here reading in this series, 00:00:17.730 --> 00:00:23.580 align:middle line:84% and I do thank Dick and my other colleagues for insisting. 00:00:23.580 --> 00:00:25.260 align:middle line:84% Even though it's rather embarrassing 00:00:25.260 --> 00:00:27.060 align:middle line:90% to be sponsoring myself here. 00:00:27.060 --> 00:00:30.120 align:middle line:90% 00:00:30.120 --> 00:00:32.970 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read excerpts from three 00:00:32.970 --> 00:00:35.070 align:middle line:84% of the chapters of this new book, 00:00:35.070 --> 00:00:38.160 align:middle line:84% and then we'll see how the time goes. 00:00:38.160 --> 00:00:42.390 align:middle line:84% If there's time, I may read two new poems. 00:00:42.390 --> 00:00:47.310 align:middle line:84% This book is set in a number of fairly remote places, most 00:00:47.310 --> 00:00:50.580 align:middle line:84% of them in the American West, also the Hawaiian islands, 00:00:50.580 --> 00:00:54.120 align:middle line:84% and in the Sea of Cortés, and in Southern Mexico. 00:00:54.120 --> 00:00:57.600 align:middle line:84% All places where that one can really 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:01.890 align:middle line:84% experience that very painful abrasion of progress 00:01:01.890 --> 00:01:08.220 align:middle line:84% with the natural world and older cultures from which I still hope 00:01:08.220 --> 00:01:11.280 align:middle line:90% we have the capacity to learn. 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:13.890 align:middle line:84% From which I hope we have the capacity to learn. 00:01:13.890 --> 00:01:18.540 align:middle line:84% So the first excerpt I'm going to read is from chapter five. 00:01:18.540 --> 00:01:21.750 align:middle line:84% It's from an essay called "In the Territory of Birds," 00:01:21.750 --> 00:01:25.680 align:middle line:90% and it's set down in the-- 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:28.455 align:middle line:84% down in Seri Indian country on the west coast of Sonora. 00:01:28.455 --> 00:01:31.500 align:middle line:90% 00:01:31.500 --> 00:01:34.560 align:middle line:84% Punta Chueca is a dry and hungry village, 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:38.850 align:middle line:84% a clutter of cement block houses, ocotillo-ribbed fences, 00:01:38.850 --> 00:01:41.890 align:middle line:84% hairless black dogs, and mangy chickens. 00:01:41.890 --> 00:01:44.580 align:middle line:84% And a few hundred Seri Indians, who 00:01:44.580 --> 00:01:47.730 align:middle line:84% have made a more or less permanent encampment 00:01:47.730 --> 00:01:50.220 align:middle line:84% on a bleached little crook of sand 00:01:50.220 --> 00:01:54.510 align:middle line:84% protruding into the infernal southern reaches of the Sonoran 00:01:54.510 --> 00:01:57.450 align:middle line:90% desert in the Sea of Cortés. 00:01:57.450 --> 00:02:00.300 align:middle line:84% Nomadic people accustomed for centuries 00:02:00.300 --> 00:02:02.970 align:middle line:84% to moving when water grew scarce, 00:02:02.970 --> 00:02:07.080 align:middle line:84% the Seris are pretty new to the idea of staying put. 00:02:07.080 --> 00:02:10.169 align:middle line:84% Their parched homeground led them never 00:02:10.169 --> 00:02:14.040 align:middle line:84% to camp for more than a month or two in one place. 00:02:14.040 --> 00:02:16.590 align:middle line:84% As recently as the 1950s, their homes 00:02:16.590 --> 00:02:19.260 align:middle line:84% were built of brush and sea turtle bones. 00:02:19.260 --> 00:02:22.470 align:middle line:84% Their weight on the land, slight and brief. 00:02:22.470 --> 00:02:26.400 align:middle line:84% But now, they have the heavy goods of civilization. 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:31.770 align:middle line:84% Cement, electricity, convenience store, and satellite dish. 00:02:31.770 --> 00:02:34.200 align:middle line:84% I went there to meet a friend who'd been visiting 00:02:34.200 --> 00:02:36.780 align:middle line:90% the village for 25 years. 00:02:36.780 --> 00:02:39.720 align:middle line:84% His friendship among the Seris helped 00:02:39.720 --> 00:02:44.070 align:middle line:84% to soften the feeling that my presence there was something 00:02:44.070 --> 00:02:45.450 align:middle line:90% hard. 00:02:45.450 --> 00:02:48.660 align:middle line:84% He had arranged for us to camp on Isla Tiburón 00:02:48.660 --> 00:02:52.470 align:middle line:84% with a local guide and a small group of American students 00:02:52.470 --> 00:02:56.430 align:middle line:84% interested in learning how the loss of Native language 00:02:56.430 --> 00:02:59.160 align:middle line:84% was eroding the Seris' natural history 00:02:59.160 --> 00:03:03.150 align:middle line:84% knowledge about Indigenous plants and animals. 00:03:03.150 --> 00:03:05.280 align:middle line:90% What is this animal's name? 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:06.660 align:middle line:90% Where does it live? 00:03:06.660 --> 00:03:08.610 align:middle line:84% What does it use to build its nest? 00:03:08.610 --> 00:03:10.050 align:middle line:90% What does it eat? 00:03:10.050 --> 00:03:11.230 align:middle line:90% Does it lay eggs? 00:03:11.230 --> 00:03:11.880 align:middle line:90% When? 00:03:11.880 --> 00:03:12.960 align:middle line:90% How many? 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:15.540 align:middle line:84% What stories do you know about this animal? 00:03:15.540 --> 00:03:17.340 align:middle line:90% When is the plant harvested? 00:03:17.340 --> 00:03:19.890 align:middle line:90% Is it used for food or medicine? 00:03:19.890 --> 00:03:23.730 align:middle line:84% They ask the children in Spanish, the elders in the Seri 00:03:23.730 --> 00:03:24.870 align:middle line:90% language. 00:03:24.870 --> 00:03:28.380 align:middle line:84% Every animal, some plants, used to have a song. 00:03:28.380 --> 00:03:30.030 align:middle line:90% They taught us a few. 00:03:30.030 --> 00:03:32.670 align:middle line:84% One about the horned lizard who'd gone out to gather 00:03:32.670 --> 00:03:35.130 align:middle line:84% firewood, loading it on his back as he 00:03:35.130 --> 00:03:37.530 align:middle line:90% climbed into the ironwood tree. 00:03:37.530 --> 00:03:39.970 align:middle line:84% Come here, come here, the people in the village called. 00:03:39.970 --> 00:03:41.670 align:middle line:90% Bring us that firewood. 00:03:41.670 --> 00:03:45.750 align:middle line:84% But ants had begun to crawl up his legs and bite him. 00:03:45.750 --> 00:03:49.200 align:middle line:84% With all that wood on his back, he could not get them off, 00:03:49.200 --> 00:03:52.590 align:middle line:84% lost his balance, and fell out of the tree. 00:03:52.590 --> 00:03:56.790 align:middle line:84% Every time someone sang this song, the Seris lit up, 00:03:56.790 --> 00:04:00.190 align:middle line:84% shaking their heads and muttering with affection, 00:04:00.190 --> 00:04:02.400 align:middle line:90% pobrecito, pobrecito. 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:03.930 align:middle line:90% Poor little one. 00:04:03.930 --> 00:04:07.320 align:middle line:84% The lizard, it seemed, carried their burdens along 00:04:07.320 --> 00:04:08.640 align:middle line:90% with his own. 00:04:08.640 --> 00:04:11.520 align:middle line:90% He shared humanity with them. 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:15.390 align:middle line:84% They shared animality with the lizard. 00:04:15.390 --> 00:04:19.050 align:middle line:84% A woman told us about a mushroom that looks like a penis 00:04:19.050 --> 00:04:24.630 align:middle line:84% but refused to say more, explaining: I am a Christian. 00:04:24.630 --> 00:04:27.840 align:middle line:84% Then an older woman sang its song. 00:04:27.840 --> 00:04:31.020 align:middle line:84% The others laughed so loud, we never caught the words, 00:04:31.020 --> 00:04:33.870 align:middle line:84% but the woman was too modest to sing it again. 00:04:33.870 --> 00:04:38.610 align:middle line:84% She would only say that it was very dirty. 00:04:38.610 --> 00:04:40.290 align:middle line:84% It was in this place that I found 00:04:40.290 --> 00:04:44.070 align:middle line:84% myself an accidental tourist in a territory of birds. 00:04:44.070 --> 00:04:47.790 align:middle line:84% I did not plan for this to happen, nor did I regret it. 00:04:47.790 --> 00:04:50.340 align:middle line:84% We set out across the Infiernillo Channel 00:04:50.340 --> 00:04:53.130 align:middle line:84% for Isla Tiburón, five visitors in all, 00:04:53.130 --> 00:04:57.060 align:middle line:84% in the care of Ernesto Molina, our Seri guide. 00:04:57.060 --> 00:04:59.920 align:middle line:84% He ferried us in his panga over the great chop 00:04:59.920 --> 00:05:02.080 align:middle line:84% to the island's long bajada where 00:05:02.080 --> 00:05:07.030 align:middle line:84% we stepped onto 20 stark miles of cardón, mesquite and creosote 00:05:07.030 --> 00:05:10.930 align:middle line:84% bush with the rosy Sierra Kunkaak rising 00:05:10.930 --> 00:05:15.310 align:middle line:84% along the island's spine, its shark fin summit cutting 00:05:15.310 --> 00:05:17.380 align:middle line:90% into the bare sky. 00:05:17.380 --> 00:05:20.350 align:middle line:84% We set up our tents and hung a blue plastic tarp 00:05:20.350 --> 00:05:23.440 align:middle line:84% over arched ocotillo ribs at an ancient encampment 00:05:23.440 --> 00:05:24.970 align:middle line:90% site on the beach. 00:05:24.970 --> 00:05:28.840 align:middle line:84% Clamshells and clay shards littered the mealy sand. 00:05:28.840 --> 00:05:32.410 align:middle line:84% Some thick-walled fragments lipped at the top, 00:05:32.410 --> 00:05:36.460 align:middle line:84% and some delicate egg shells from the large ollas 00:05:36.460 --> 00:05:39.850 align:middle line:84% made for carrying water from the mountain. 00:05:39.850 --> 00:05:42.700 align:middle line:84% We found a few discarded metates and manos 00:05:42.700 --> 00:05:47.530 align:middle line:84% made of black volcanic stone not native to the place, remnants 00:05:47.530 --> 00:05:49.840 align:middle line:84% of a time when eel grass and mesquite 00:05:49.840 --> 00:05:53.290 align:middle line:84% seeds were milled into flour near the place 00:05:53.290 --> 00:05:55.570 align:middle line:90% they had been harvested. 00:05:55.570 --> 00:05:59.020 align:middle line:84% Osprey and pelicans dove offshore for fish. 00:05:59.020 --> 00:06:02.920 align:middle line:84% A single curlew waded in the shallows, a gull and crow 00:06:02.920 --> 00:06:06.070 align:middle line:84% picking their way across the mudflats. 00:06:06.070 --> 00:06:08.620 align:middle line:84% Three of our group walked a mile up the beach 00:06:08.620 --> 00:06:12.790 align:middle line:84% and found the clean, meatless skeleton of a dolphin stranded 00:06:12.790 --> 00:06:18.760 align:middle line:84% above the tide line, its ribs like pairs of stylized doll arms 00:06:18.760 --> 00:06:21.070 align:middle line:90% embracing nothing. 00:06:21.070 --> 00:06:24.160 align:middle line:84% Three teeth lay bedded in their sockets. 00:06:24.160 --> 00:06:27.880 align:middle line:84% We loosened them, stroked the soft ivory, 00:06:27.880 --> 00:06:31.690 align:middle line:84% then slipped them in our pockets, one for each of us 00:06:31.690 --> 00:06:37.390 align:middle line:84% to take home as talisman of our good fortune in discovery. 00:06:37.390 --> 00:06:41.620 align:middle line:84% It did not matter that our discovery was of death. 00:06:41.620 --> 00:06:45.160 align:middle line:84% Being human, we found joy in the new, 00:06:45.160 --> 00:06:48.610 align:middle line:84% even if the new was grotesque or played 00:06:48.610 --> 00:06:52.240 align:middle line:84% at the timbre of elemental fears. 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:55.510 align:middle line:84% Perhaps with those dead teeth in our pockets, we felt, 00:06:55.510 --> 00:07:00.130 align:middle line:84% we had stolen a little of death's power. 00:07:00.130 --> 00:07:03.880 align:middle line:84% The Seris have lived in the region for over 2,000 years, 00:07:03.880 --> 00:07:06.580 align:middle line:84% and Isla Tiburón has been significant to them 00:07:06.580 --> 00:07:11.430 align:middle line:84% for its clean mountain springs, wild game, and plants 00:07:11.430 --> 00:07:15.490 align:middle line:84% gathered for food, medicine, baskets, and dyes. 00:07:15.490 --> 00:07:18.760 align:middle line:84% They have 13 names for mesquite, seven of which 00:07:18.760 --> 00:07:22.090 align:middle line:84% are for growth stages of the seed pod. 00:07:22.090 --> 00:07:25.360 align:middle line:84% The names for eelgrass, another important food plant, 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:28.240 align:middle line:84% signifies stages of its lifecycle. 00:07:28.240 --> 00:07:30.610 align:middle line:84% When it first sprouts, when it grows 00:07:30.610 --> 00:07:34.810 align:middle line:84% above the surface of water, when it detaches and floats up, 00:07:34.810 --> 00:07:38.620 align:middle line:84% when it piles into windrows on the beach. 00:07:38.620 --> 00:07:41.110 align:middle line:84% These are the last hunter-gatherers 00:07:41.110 --> 00:07:46.730 align:middle line:84% in Mexico and quite possibly the poorest people in the nation. 00:07:46.730 --> 00:07:49.420 align:middle line:84% There were once six groups speaking three dialects 00:07:49.420 --> 00:07:51.520 align:middle line:90% scattered around the region. 00:07:51.520 --> 00:07:54.580 align:middle line:84% According to Richard Felger, the prominent anthropologist 00:07:54.580 --> 00:07:57.100 align:middle line:84% of the culture, the remaining Seris 00:07:57.100 --> 00:08:01.450 align:middle line:84% are an amalgamation of survivors from these regions. 00:08:01.450 --> 00:08:04.330 align:middle line:84% Their longevity on the west coast of Sonora 00:08:04.330 --> 00:08:08.260 align:middle line:84% has been established by carbon dating of eelgrass found 00:08:08.260 --> 00:08:10.950 align:middle line:90% in an ancient burial site. 00:08:10.950 --> 00:08:13.330 align:middle line:84% Ernesto wanted to take us to a spring 00:08:13.330 --> 00:08:15.850 align:middle line:84% in the mountains, a place where the Seris had 00:08:15.850 --> 00:08:18.070 align:middle line:90% gathered water for centuries. 00:08:18.070 --> 00:08:21.340 align:middle line:84% We hiked inland toward the crinkled heights, Ernesto 00:08:21.340 --> 00:08:23.860 align:middle line:84% marching purposefully through the scrub 00:08:23.860 --> 00:08:28.280 align:middle line:84% as if there were a path, his blue satin baseball jacket 00:08:28.280 --> 00:08:32.799 align:middle line:84% a beacon ahead while we picked our way, sweaty and leery 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:36.490 align:middle line:84% of rattlesnakes, through the thorns and brush. 00:08:36.490 --> 00:08:38.740 align:middle line:84% I guess there was a path in his mind, 00:08:38.740 --> 00:08:41.679 align:middle line:84% for he never hesitated unless to explain 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:45.790 align:middle line:84% how the creosote bush provided a decongestant and nerve tonic. 00:08:45.790 --> 00:08:50.710 align:middle line:84% The staff of torote blanco served as a cure for cataracts. 00:08:50.710 --> 00:08:53.920 align:middle line:84% The roots of ratany were woven into baskets, 00:08:53.920 --> 00:08:59.020 align:middle line:84% and blue dye made from ground-up snails mixed with four or five 00:08:59.020 --> 00:09:01.450 align:middle line:90% of these plants. 00:09:01.450 --> 00:09:05.740 align:middle line:84% One of our group told him, you ought to become a biologist. 00:09:05.740 --> 00:09:09.490 align:middle line:84% I already am a biologist, he answered. 00:09:09.490 --> 00:09:11.770 align:middle line:84% As a community leader, Ernesto had 00:09:11.770 --> 00:09:15.640 align:middle line:84% received training in Mexico City in ecotourism. 00:09:15.640 --> 00:09:17.320 align:middle line:84% The government hopes that the industry 00:09:17.320 --> 00:09:20.920 align:middle line:84% will help to support poor, Indigenous communities that 00:09:20.920 --> 00:09:24.460 align:middle line:84% are less able to live by traditional means because 00:09:24.460 --> 00:09:27.340 align:middle line:84% of shrinking and degraded habitats. 00:09:27.340 --> 00:09:30.970 align:middle line:84% The Seris have a reputation for being opportunistic. 00:09:30.970 --> 00:09:34.330 align:middle line:84% When the Spanish settled in Mexico in the 17th century, 00:09:34.330 --> 00:09:38.050 align:middle line:84% the nomadic Seris made good use of new resources 00:09:38.050 --> 00:09:42.490 align:middle line:84% by moving and hustling cattle to augment their hunting. 00:09:42.490 --> 00:09:45.700 align:middle line:84% In the 20th century, they expanded their subsistence 00:09:45.700 --> 00:09:49.060 align:middle line:84% fishing to serve the growing commercial market. 00:09:49.060 --> 00:09:53.980 align:middle line:84% But in the Sea of Cortés, as elsewhere, wild resources 00:09:53.980 --> 00:09:55.420 align:middle line:90% are strained. 00:09:55.420 --> 00:10:00.740 align:middle line:84% There is not much left to fish for except tourists. 00:10:00.740 --> 00:10:05.930 align:middle line:84% Ernesto was not naive about the impact of outsiders. 00:10:05.930 --> 00:10:09.980 align:middle line:84% He told us about a rich Mexican who'd settled on Seri land 00:10:09.980 --> 00:10:13.010 align:middle line:84% and killed off plants by the thousands in order 00:10:13.010 --> 00:10:15.560 align:middle line:90% to build his enormous house. 00:10:15.560 --> 00:10:18.830 align:middle line:84% We got rid of him, Ernesto said, even though this guy threatened 00:10:18.830 --> 00:10:20.720 align:middle line:90% to kill us if we did. 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:22.430 align:middle line:90% We used to fight with guns. 00:10:22.430 --> 00:10:24.860 align:middle line:90% Now, we fight with knowledge. 00:10:24.860 --> 00:10:27.590 align:middle line:84% He was studying the Mexican Constitution, 00:10:27.590 --> 00:10:29.300 align:middle line:84% and though he had his reservations 00:10:29.300 --> 00:10:31.550 align:middle line:84% about the negative impact of tourists 00:10:31.550 --> 00:10:36.170 align:middle line:84% on Seri land and culture, the options being negligible, 00:10:36.170 --> 00:10:39.470 align:middle line:90% he was willing to give it a try. 00:10:39.470 --> 00:10:41.960 align:middle line:84% As we walked farther into the heat of the day, 00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:44.660 align:middle line:84% our pace lagged, and our eyes wandered 00:10:44.660 --> 00:10:47.570 align:middle line:84% to the ground at our feet with more longings 00:10:47.570 --> 00:10:51.140 align:middle line:84% than to the heights that lay an hour ahead. 00:10:51.140 --> 00:10:53.030 align:middle line:90% We stopped to rest. 00:10:53.030 --> 00:10:56.090 align:middle line:84% Someone found a bleached deer rack. 00:10:56.090 --> 00:10:59.480 align:middle line:84% Ernesto said before the Seris had guns, 00:10:59.480 --> 00:11:03.350 align:middle line:84% his grandfather had hunted with the whole head of a deer, 00:11:03.350 --> 00:11:07.400 align:middle line:84% wearing it on his head, hiding behind a bush, 00:11:07.400 --> 00:11:11.060 align:middle line:84% moving gradually closer to the herd. 00:11:11.060 --> 00:11:14.690 align:middle line:84% The deer thought the interloper was one of their kind, 00:11:14.690 --> 00:11:19.280 align:middle line:84% and little by little would approach until one got so close 00:11:19.280 --> 00:11:22.010 align:middle line:90% that the men could jump it. 00:11:22.010 --> 00:11:25.650 align:middle line:84% In his lifetime, Ernesto had [AUDIO OUT] guy do it. 00:11:25.650 --> 00:11:28.610 align:middle line:84% And he said that the movements were incredible. 00:11:28.610 --> 00:11:30.320 align:middle line:90% It's dangerous, he cautioned. 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:34.550 align:middle line:84% If you screw up, the animals are right on top of you. 00:11:34.550 --> 00:11:37.850 align:middle line:84% He said little about other aspects of his grandfather's 00:11:37.850 --> 00:11:41.450 align:middle line:84% history except that the place where we were headed 00:11:41.450 --> 00:11:46.400 align:middle line:84% was called the place where we go when the enemy chases us. 00:11:46.400 --> 00:11:50.090 align:middle line:84% We had read about the battles with the Mexican army fought 00:11:50.090 --> 00:11:53.720 align:middle line:84% on that ground, the slaughter of women and children 00:11:53.720 --> 00:11:57.500 align:middle line:84% who had run to a cave in the mountains to hide. 00:11:57.500 --> 00:12:00.080 align:middle line:84% At certain points along the way, Ernesto 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:01.890 align:middle line:90% murmured under his breath, 00:12:01.890 --> 00:12:04.310 align:middle line:90% pobrecitos, pobrecitos, 00:12:04.310 --> 00:12:09.080 align:middle line:84% and we sensed that he knew just what terrible thing had 00:12:09.080 --> 00:12:12.170 align:middle line:90% occurred in that spot. 00:12:12.170 --> 00:12:15.440 align:middle line:84% Even now, the Mexican marines maintained a small base 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:18.080 align:middle line:84% on the island, though a government decree 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:22.440 align:middle line:84% had designated the place to be under Seri jurisdiction. 00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:25.280 align:middle line:84% Some of the people worried that what had happened 00:12:25.280 --> 00:12:29.210 align:middle line:84% in Chiapas last year, the official government slaughter 00:12:29.210 --> 00:12:32.960 align:middle line:84% of Indigenous rebels, might happen here next. 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:36.620 align:middle line:84% I wondered if leading groups of foreigners 00:12:36.620 --> 00:12:41.330 align:middle line:84% over ground hallowed by his ancestors' sufferings 00:12:41.330 --> 00:12:45.900 align:middle line:84% might feel to Ernesto like a sacrilege. 00:12:45.900 --> 00:12:49.490 align:middle line:84% I knew that it must be so, and also 00:12:49.490 --> 00:12:52.910 align:middle line:84% that for the Seris to survive on their home ground, 00:12:52.910 --> 00:12:57.860 align:middle line:84% such tours were one of their best bets. 00:12:57.860 --> 00:13:01.970 align:middle line:84% There were six in our party, three men and three women. 00:13:01.970 --> 00:13:05.550 align:middle line:84% Perhaps the cause was the heat of high afternoon. 00:13:05.550 --> 00:13:07.850 align:middle line:84% Perhaps the fact that several of us 00:13:07.850 --> 00:13:12.230 align:middle line:84% already had begun to suffer from an unfriendly intestinal 00:13:12.230 --> 00:13:14.500 align:middle line:90% colonization. 00:13:14.500 --> 00:13:16.640 align:middle line:90% You've been there, right? 00:13:16.640 --> 00:13:19.730 align:middle line:84% Perhaps the sadness and complexity of history 00:13:19.730 --> 00:13:24.710 align:middle line:84% had crept into our idle mood, but whatever the cause, after we 00:13:24.710 --> 00:13:29.420 align:middle line:84% stopped in the shade to snack and sip from our canteens, 00:13:29.420 --> 00:13:33.350 align:middle line:84% the women decided we were too tired to go on. 00:13:33.350 --> 00:13:35.360 align:middle line:84% The men continued up the slope, hoping 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:37.250 align:middle line:90% to reach the mountain spring. 00:13:37.250 --> 00:13:41.030 align:middle line:84% We lay in the sparse shade of palo verde and ocotillo 00:13:41.030 --> 00:13:45.530 align:middle line:84% to nap and talk about the troubles women save for one 00:13:45.530 --> 00:13:47.870 align:middle line:90% another's listening. 00:13:47.870 --> 00:13:50.720 align:middle line:84% Mostly, it was the subject of men 00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:54.440 align:middle line:84% that occupied our conversation, wondering 00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:59.750 align:middle line:84% what makes it work or not work between a woman and a man. 00:13:59.750 --> 00:14:02.000 align:middle line:84% One told of meeting the man she loves 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:05.120 align:middle line:84% during an outdoor leadership program. 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:07.280 align:middle line:84% After a month in the wilderness, they 00:14:07.280 --> 00:14:11.270 align:middle line:84% were covered with grime and the stink of their bodies. 00:14:11.270 --> 00:14:13.940 align:middle line:90% That's when they fell in love. 00:14:13.940 --> 00:14:16.010 align:middle line:90% It was pheromones, she said. 00:14:16.010 --> 00:14:19.220 align:middle line:90% I'm sure of it. 00:14:19.220 --> 00:14:21.740 align:middle line:84% Another told of her lingering break 00:14:21.740 --> 00:14:24.350 align:middle line:84% from a brilliant and charming man who 00:14:24.350 --> 00:14:29.010 align:middle line:84% refused during the last year together to touch her. 00:14:29.010 --> 00:14:33.650 align:middle line:84% I told of infidelity suffered, and the attraction I could not 00:14:33.650 --> 00:14:37.940 align:middle line:84% resist for someone new, though I saw in the man 00:14:37.940 --> 00:14:42.710 align:middle line:84% the same tendencies that had wounded me before. 00:14:42.710 --> 00:14:45.620 align:middle line:84% We lounged in the sweet togetherness 00:14:45.620 --> 00:14:51.110 align:middle line:84% of women in which our hopes for love thrive. 00:14:51.110 --> 00:14:54.290 align:middle line:84% While we talked, cactus wrens trilled, 00:14:54.290 --> 00:14:57.380 align:middle line:84% a gila woodpecker worked the cardones, 00:14:57.380 --> 00:15:02.740 align:middle line:84% and high in the perfect sky, a black vulture circled. 00:15:02.740 --> 00:15:06.400 align:middle line:84% Lying on our backs, we watched it absently 00:15:06.400 --> 00:15:11.470 align:middle line:84% as we might have watched a small, fair-weather cloud, never 00:15:11.470 --> 00:15:17.150 align:middle line:84% considering that its presence had anything to do with us. 00:15:17.150 --> 00:15:21.850 align:middle line:84% But while the other birds flitted in and out of our view, 00:15:21.850 --> 00:15:26.995 align:middle line:84% the vultures stayed directly overhead, circling and circling. 00:15:26.995 --> 00:15:30.040 align:middle line:90% 00:15:30.040 --> 00:15:34.690 align:middle line:84% I began to think it was homing on some rank thing that 00:15:34.690 --> 00:15:38.770 align:middle line:84% lay near us, or on a creature close to dying 00:15:38.770 --> 00:15:41.140 align:middle line:90% that would make a fresh meal. 00:15:41.140 --> 00:15:45.760 align:middle line:84% I knew, or thought I knew, that the presence of a vulture 00:15:45.760 --> 00:15:48.790 align:middle line:90% means death. 00:15:48.790 --> 00:15:53.260 align:middle line:84% I do not know what draws such a predator to its table, 00:15:53.260 --> 00:15:56.590 align:middle line:84% whether sight, or smell, or a synesthetic 00:15:56.590 --> 00:15:59.620 align:middle line:84% sense that humans will never know. 00:15:59.620 --> 00:16:03.790 align:middle line:84% The Seris have a story that explains the vultures' gift. 00:16:03.790 --> 00:16:06.220 align:middle line:84% They say that in the beginning of the world, 00:16:06.220 --> 00:16:08.560 align:middle line:90% the fly invented fire. 00:16:08.560 --> 00:16:12.220 align:middle line:84% They say that now when a fly lands on a dead animal, 00:16:12.220 --> 00:16:15.310 align:middle line:84% it makes fire by rubbing its front legs together 00:16:15.310 --> 00:16:19.810 align:middle line:84% and sends smoke signals telling the vulture where on the desert 00:16:19.810 --> 00:16:20.875 align:middle line:90% the carcass lies. 00:16:20.875 --> 00:16:23.590 align:middle line:90% 00:16:23.590 --> 00:16:29.020 align:middle line:84% We heard the men coming a long while before they arrived, 00:16:29.020 --> 00:16:33.340 align:middle line:84% men we all love in friendship, and we knew 00:16:33.340 --> 00:16:37.000 align:middle line:90% they would play a joke on us. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:39.280 align:middle line:90% You've been there, too. 00:16:39.280 --> 00:16:42.670 align:middle line:84% The crunch of gravel slowed, then quieted. 00:16:42.670 --> 00:16:45.205 align:middle line:84% A set of antlers rose from behind a bush. 00:16:45.205 --> 00:16:48.490 align:middle line:90% 00:16:48.490 --> 00:16:52.630 align:middle line:84% We weren't surprised and did not pretend we were. 00:16:52.630 --> 00:16:55.540 align:middle line:84% Still, everyone got a good laugh. 00:16:55.540 --> 00:16:59.830 align:middle line:84% One guy asked us if we had seen the vultures circling us. 00:16:59.830 --> 00:17:01.420 align:middle line:90% Yes, we answered. 00:17:01.420 --> 00:17:04.240 align:middle line:84% He joked that after camping out, we smelled so bad, 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:07.599 align:middle line:84% the vulture thought he might have found something to eat. 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:11.380 align:middle line:84% We all had another good laugh except Ernesto, who looked 00:17:11.380 --> 00:17:14.470 align:middle line:90% sober, and shook his head. 00:17:14.470 --> 00:17:16.359 align:middle line:84% No, no, he said to the other men. 00:17:16.359 --> 00:17:18.280 align:middle line:90% That's not it at all. 00:17:18.280 --> 00:17:23.358 align:middle line:84% The vulture was guarding them because they are beautiful. 00:17:23.358 --> 00:17:24.025 align:middle line:90% We were puzzled. 00:17:24.025 --> 00:17:26.650 align:middle line:90% 00:17:26.650 --> 00:17:30.340 align:middle line:84% The gap between our way of seeing and his, 00:17:30.340 --> 00:17:33.610 align:middle line:90% filling up with awkward silence. 00:17:33.610 --> 00:17:36.670 align:middle line:84% Then he explained that if the men had gotten lost 00:17:36.670 --> 00:17:40.600 align:middle line:84% and not returned, anyone from the village a mile 00:17:40.600 --> 00:17:43.480 align:middle line:84% across the water would have seen the vulture 00:17:43.480 --> 00:17:46.570 align:middle line:90% and known where to find us. 00:17:46.570 --> 00:17:51.730 align:middle line:84% It was our turn to look sober, for what was black suddenly 00:17:51.730 --> 00:17:53.110 align:middle line:90% looked white. 00:17:53.110 --> 00:17:57.040 align:middle line:84% What was harbinger had become protective. 00:17:57.040 --> 00:17:59.140 align:middle line:90% We started back to camp. 00:17:59.140 --> 00:18:01.930 align:middle line:84% As we started back to camp, the quiet 00:18:01.930 --> 00:18:08.500 align:middle line:84% stayed with us, each holding fast to Ernesto's way of seeing. 00:18:08.500 --> 00:18:12.070 align:middle line:84% It was not our way, and we knew it. 00:18:12.070 --> 00:18:16.030 align:middle line:84% That's what made it stick in our imaginations 00:18:16.030 --> 00:18:21.280 align:middle line:84% like a puffy, airborne seed lodged in thorns. 00:18:21.280 --> 00:18:26.680 align:middle line:84% The world looked then both kinder and more dangerous 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:29.140 align:middle line:90% than it had before. 00:18:29.140 --> 00:18:34.210 align:middle line:84% We fanned out in search of dead wood for our campfire, 00:18:34.210 --> 00:18:38.590 align:middle line:84% hefting bleached, gray branches and root burls 00:18:38.590 --> 00:18:41.080 align:middle line:90% onto our backs and shoulders. 00:18:41.080 --> 00:18:45.330 align:middle line:90% 00:18:45.330 --> 00:18:46.880 align:middle line:90% Thanks. 00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:55.000 align:middle line:90%