When Brandon was born, Michael Quinn Patton began pondering how best to celebrate the day his son would become a man. As a sociologist, Patton was intrigued with the rich history of coming-of-age rites of passage for young men, dating to ancient tribal cultures. But as a humanist he was wary of contemporary men's movements and their stressing of new age spiritualities.


When Brandon turned 18, Patton took his son to a place of mystery and wonder-the Grand Canyon-where they could explore together what it means to come of age. With an anthropologist as their guide, Patton and his son hiked the magnificent and dangerous canyon, exploring the oldest exposed rock on Earth while delving deeply into ancient coming-of-age myths like the Grail Legend. They found themselves faced with choices between fundamentally opposed paradigms: tribe-based warrior initiation and an emergent humanist celebration of father-son bonding and rational deliberation.


Written in the tradition of The Man Who Walked Through Time, and Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, this is the story of the Pattons' remarkable journey of discovery as they learn about history and geology, false spirituality, facing danger together, and what it means to be a man in today's world.


Patton cuts across many branches of social thought and belief: humanism, skepticism, father-son relations and men's movements, liberal religions, mythology, psychology, and social science. Life-affirming lessons of mutuality and acceptance are captured in Grand Canyon Celebration, a timeless memoir for all families as they journey through the canyons of their own lives.