I like walking. A lot. If the day is short, I will just go through some familiar scenery, but my favorite kind of walk is the kind where I have to wake up early on a Saturday morning so that I can make it back before the sun sets.
I commonly hear "I saw a girl that looked just like you walking behind discount tires on I-35" Or better yet, "when I was home over the summer in Las Cruces New Mexico, I saw this girl walking down the street with her luggage-- in 107 degree weather-- that looked just like you!" (I will explain that one in another post...)
I'm frequently asked "where are you going?" To which I just shrug. Dissatisfied, they'll ask "well, where are you coming from?" and I'll just say "I'm on a walk." To me, that seems like that would be a sufficient answer.
Why walk? For health? Sure. Because it's more environmentally responsible than driving and saves gasoline money? Absolutely. But there's something else...
When I go on walks, I never really plan out where I'm going to go. I usually just follow my curiosity. I understand the old saying-- "curiosity kills the cat"--but at the same time, I also like to believe that people of this nature have 9 lives. I've got at least 5 of mine left. Okay, maybe 4. The point is, I like to explore new territory. This means I'm constantly forced to re-orient myself. I walk for the thrill of this.
Here are some other people who are talking about walking too, but prettier...
"It is a surprising and memorable, as well as valuable experience, to be lost in the woods at any time [...] In our most trivial walks, we are constantly, though unconsciously, steering like pilots by certain well-known beacons and headlands, and if we go beyond our usual course we still carry in our minds the bearing of some neighboring cape; and not till we are completely lost, or turned round-- for [s]he needs only to be turned round once with eyes shut in this world to be lost-- do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of Nature. Every person has to learn the points of compass again as often as [s]he awakes, whether from sleep or any abstraction. Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations"
-Henry David Thoreau, Walden
"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago... having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all [wo]men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me. [...] Stand a person on their legs, set their feet a-going, and they will infallibly lead you to water[...] Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever."
-Herman Melville, Moby Dick
So, here is an introduction to my studies in the South Pacific.
No comments:
Post a Comment