Flew Over the Empty Country

Flying Seattle--Reno--Las Vegas--Tucson it is almost all empty country, mostly too stark and bleak for people to be able to grow things, or to live in densely enough to show from 8 miles high. I had the oddest feeling of disconnection as I watched the shapes of the mountains and deserts below. I spent more than 20 years looking at and living in the Dry West, and it has nothing to do with me now.

Of all the pictures I showed to my mother, she liked the minus-tide rocks and bits of wood best.