Look

This is the view finder at Face Rock Overlook at Canyon de Chelly.

Each tube seems to be focused on a different feature of the canyon but there is no explanation. What one sees is a small circle of the canyon wall, a cutout. So, for a moment, I thought this might be irreverent art, poking gentle fun at tourists who are spending the day being simpatico with the Navajo Nation. And that may be true.

But I think it’s intended as an actual view finder. Or if not that, a reminder to not just look at everything at once and figure you’ve seen it all. I looked through each tube, maybe just to acknowledge that its focus was important even if I didn’t know what it meant. I tried to take time but there is never enough time to take.

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I asked at the gift shop at the Thunderbird Lodge. No, the young Navajo woman said, she’d never heard of who I was looking for, a jewelry maker who’d crafted two necklaces I’d bought years ago. I figured that he’d probably passed away. He was an older guy then so it seemed unlikely that he’d be sitting at the some spot waiting for my return.

So, we started our drive along the south rim of Canyon de Chelly. At our second stop, there was a walk out to a lookout point and we started down the path. Ahead two people were talking to a shadow under a mesquite tree. As I got closer, I heard them peppering the shadow with questions. How many people lived in the canyon? What did they grow down there? And the shadow answered each question although I didn’t hear all the detail.

He was an old Navajo man. He was long and thin, situated under the tree like old rope coiled in the corner of the garage. He wore a flannel shirt in the 90 degree heat and a cowboy hat. He sat on a wooden folding chair under a tree with the name CALVIN carved in its truck. He was there to chat up the tourists and sell his art – vivid paintings on shards of concrete. Three of them leaned up against a sign. $20.

“Yeah. I know him. I know him and all his brothers.”

He told me places where the person I was looking for might be and I thanked him and went back to our truck. And then I decided that I should buy one of his pieces and found a twenty dollar bill in my wallet. He looked up like he’d been waiting for me and then explained his painting. At its center was a hummingbird.