"Although I was born in Arizona, I didn’t really become aware of the Southwest until I was about 7 years old, the first time I got a window seat on an airplane. This is, I must admit, an odd way of making a place’s acquaintance. You’re limited to just one of your five senses, and all the most iconic bits of the terrain are blurred, shrunken, or invisible: not a single paloverde tree is in sight, the saguaros are a patchy stubble, the purple mountains lose their majesty when they cease to tower over you, and even the grandest canyon surrenders power when reduced to a random fissure far below."