Tuesday 01 April 2025
Just Go! This mantra has become my rallying cry; even my wife has begun to declare this shibboleth. And why not? If you can go, stop waiting. If you can’t go, go anyway.
The etymology of “to wait” reveals: c. 1200, waiten, “to watch with hostile intent, lie in wait for, plot against,” from Anglo-French and Old North French waitier “to watch” (Old French gaitier “defend, watch out, be on one’s guard; lie in wait for;” Modern French guetter). The word origins for “to wait” seem to emphasize bleakness, gloominess… even antagonism; I would even add envy and malice. Why would I continue to punish myself (and my family) by waiting to go? Why would I continue to agonize myself (and my family) by waiting to go? Just fucking go already! I have stopped plotting against myself (and my family) and just went to Sedona, Arizona.
Years before COVID-19, Sedona was an inchoate dream travel destination. Almost thirty years ago, my wife and I visited the Grand Canyon—a day trip from Las Vegas, Nevada. Having gone before the arrivals of our children, we prided ourselves for seeing (finally) the Grand Canyon, vowing we would return… someday… with our future kids. For one reason or another, we didn’t. Other domestic and world destinations called out louder, muffling the alluring request to return to Arizona for an extended visit of not only the Grand Canyon but more of the state.
During the first wave of COVID-19, I watched with prayer-like devotion travel YouTube videos. And one of the more enticing videos enchanting me was the series on Sedona. I couldn’t get enough of the videos featuring the red rocks of Sedona! Those colors! The shapes of the formations! Even the new-age vibe of Sedona appealed to me. Why not?
And so, my wife and I went to Sedona. And we booked an outdoor morning vortex yoga session. How could we not? Perched on Airport Mesa and staring at Bell Rock, Courthouse Butte, Wilson Mountain, and many other glorious red rocks, my wife and I reignited our former interest in yoga. Since returning from Sedona, I have begun to fulfill my promise to myself to learn Qigong, a traditional Chinese physical exercise paired with meditative practice. Both Qigong and Tai Chi involve cultivating and balancing “Qi,” or the life energy force. Less a martial art than Tai Chi, Qigong fascinates me because not only for stress management but for the spirituality of the exercise.
I so wanted Sedona’s red rocks to serve as a conduit for a spiritual connection with Mother Nature. Yes, in part, my wife and I went to Sedona for a transcendental journey. We didn’t buy crystals, and we didn’t get our palms read by tarot card readers. Nonetheless, the effects of Sedona’s red rocks were like Emersonian/Thoreau-like elixirs of life. If you have read these American Transcendentalists, you know what I mean. Whether I call what I felt while hiking a trail, balancing in Tree Pose, or simply marveling at the view of Bell Rock, or whether I succinctly call what I felt during my trip to Sedona as “Qi” or even becoming a “transparent eye-ball,”[1] I began to take better self-care of my mental health, and of course, strengthening my marriage by “zen-ing” with my wife.
Repeating Herman Melville’s famous critique of Ralph Waldo Emerson, I, too, “do not oscillate in Emerson’s rainbow;” sometimes, mystical, trance-like experiences of transcendentalism or mysticism seem more like wish fulfillments rather than actual connections to the unconscious or Nature. Walking by several crystal shops on the streets of Sedona didn’t need to disillusion me about the suspect nature of new agism. Moreover, I couldn’t ignore the commercialism of Sedona, the town.
Walt Disney did have a vacation house in Sedona, and some people do claim that he found inspiration in Sedona’s Thunder Mountain for his amusement parks’ own Big Thunder Mountain Railroad thrill ride. When I first witnessed the glorious red rocks of Sedona, I couldn’t resist thinking of Disney/Pixar’s animated film, Cars (2006) and Disney California Adventure Park’s Radiator Springs Racers ride, too—both the film and the ride based upon the movie use the red rocks of the Southwest as their backdrops. Sigh.
Nonetheless, I didn’t allow myself to be commandeered by the Disneyfication lurking in the air of Sedona’s beauty and thus bankrupting my experiences with Nature while driving on Arizona 89A North to Sedona. I reminded myself what Walter Benjamin taught me in his The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1935): no reproduction of a work of art, or, in this case, the work of Mother Nature, can be duplicated or captured, can be simulated or reproduced—no matter how good AI is becoming, for example, or skilled the craftsmen are molding cement forms for amusement park backgrounds, in fooling us otherwise that we don’t need the real thing anymore.
Looking at a poster or screenshot of Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night (1889) or Wheat Field with Cypresses (1889) isn’t the same as going to Museum of Modern Art or Metropolitan Museum of Art and viewing the real van Gogh works of art; even the best reproduction cannot capture the aura or the vibrations of energy in the canvases. Neither Disney’s Thunder Mountain nor its Radiator Springs Racers rides vibrate, radiating the Life Force of Sedona’s realness. Once relearning that most important lesson from Benjamin, I only saw the real beauty of Sedona’s red rocks. I felt it. What a rejuvenating moment!
Prior to boarding the plane to Phoenix, I devised a more ambitious itinerary. Foolish me, but I quickly relearned a valuable lesson—one that struck deeper than previous attempts at learning this lesson: “Less Is More.” Next time, I will go to Petrified Forest National Park. When I return to Northern Arizona, I will see Monument Valley; in other words, my wife and I already selected Utah as our next American trip with a stop-over in Arizona for the Petrified Forest.
During our last hours in Sedona, my wife and I also did something we never really had done before: we sat on an outdoor bench, drinking our café lattes, and gazed at Snoopy Rock. For nearly an hour! Doing so was one of the most enjoyable and loving moments of our trip. Mr. Middle-aged, New York Anxious College Professor actually relaxed by simply being one with Nature and with his wife.
THE SEDONA ITINERARY
Day 01 Sunday
Arrive in Phoenix, AZ
Drive to Sedona, AZ (~2hrs. drive from Phoenix)
Check-in Hotel
Walk around Tlaquepaque Arts & Shopping Village
Dinner
Day 02 Monday
Drive to Page, AZ (~3hrs drive from Sedona)
Visit Horseshoe Bend (~4 miles southwest of Page, AZ)
Lunch in Page, AZ
Antelope Canyon Tour
Drive to Sedona, AZ
Dinner in Sedona, AZ
Day 03 Tuesday
Morning Hike, West Fork Oak Creek Trailhead, Sedona, AZ
Snack at Sedonuts Donut & Coffee Shop of Sedona, AZ
Visit The Chapel of the Holy Cross, Sedona, AZ
Arizona Safari Jeep Tours (Sunset), Sedona, AZ
Dinner
Day 04 Wednesday
Aumbase Sedona Yoga Rise and Shine Yoga on Sedona’s Airport Vortex: Daily Outdoor Morning Class, Sedona, AZ
Shop in Uptown Sedona, AZ
Drink Café Lattes and admire the view of Snoopy Rock, Sedona, AZ
Drive to Phoenix, AZ
Check-in Hotel
Dinner
Day 05 Thursday
Fly Back Home
[1] Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nature. (1836)