John Coltrane accompanied me on the long drive to Socorro this morning, with Lee Morgan on trumpet and the echoes of geology in my head as I followed the Rio Grande Rift, a deceptively simple feature on the landscape of New Mexico. Most rivers cut their own way, making the valleys and canyons they use to get along. But the Rio Grande is an opportunist, following a gentle slow rift in the Earth's crust. This is appropros of nothing in particular, except it was a beautiful day for a drive, all spring on the high desert and John Coltrane today earned my trust (if he didn't have it already).