I wimped out of walking when the iPhone reported it was 81 outside. "Maybe I will walk in the evening" I told myself as I tried to work on the syllabi for the new academic year that will begin soon.
Evening came.
It was a freaking 91 degrees even at half-past-six.
I was left with only one option: walking canceled.
The day felt incomplete.
So, of course, a pretentious post on walking is the result!
This New Yorker essay, which notes that "people are made for walking, but we are not very good at it" includes extensive commentary on Frédéric Gros' A philosophy of walking:
The purpose of walking, he tells us, is not to find friends but to share solitude, “for solitude too can be shared, like bread and daylight”; the philosopher Kant’s life “was as exactly ruled as music manuscript paper”; when walking, the body “stops being in the landscape: it becomes the landscape.”I like that interpretation. To share solitude, with the river and the birds and the trees, and smiling--and the rare unsmiling--humans. Well, even with those damn bugs.
Contemplative walking is Gros’s favored kind: the walking of medieval pilgrims, of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Henry David Thoreau, of Kant’s daily life. It is the Western equivalent of what Asians accomplish by sitting. Walking is the Western form of meditation: “You’re doing nothing when you walk, nothing but walking. But having nothing to do but walk makes it possible to recover the pure sensation of being, to rediscover the simple joy of existing, the joy that permeates the whole of childhood.”I do wonder whether this view of life is a male perspective. The stereotypical male is more comfortable with the solitude in many, ahem, walks of life than the typical females who are social even when it is about going to the restroom. In any case, it works for me as a male.
I checked the weather app.
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All clear to share solitude with the river--today, and for quite a few days more too.
4 comments:
Being a fellow male I share both in the joys of solitude and the contribution of walking to it as described in your "tl;r" post :) I'll let Anne speak for the female of the species :):):)
By the way are you complaining that 81 deg is too hot or too cold ?!!
81 and climbing is now too hot for this guy who grew up in Neyveli ;)
More on this in the post that I just published! I tell ya, my blog is one endless conversation with myself, and am delighted that you are around to listen to me and jump in with your thoughts ...
Ramesh, you present an impossible challenge as I am quite unlike most women. You'll understand when we share your memorable dinner.
I enjoy chaos, companionship and solitude; each has a place in my life. Unlike the professor, though, I rarely walk without music. He seems to enjoy the time to think, but I need the music to stop my brain for a while. Unfortunately, it is rare when the music provides complete distraction. Generally my mind overrides the music, and the topics of the day invade my peace - kids, balance sheet, groceries, long-term care, football fundraisers, Napoleon, elections - the cycle is endless. As often as not, something I observe sparks the thought process, whether a remarkable person or something along the path. When I can focus on the music, the walk is very calming.
What in the world is "tl;r"??
If I understand Ramesh's humor here, he has modified the "tl; dr" from the other post to "tl; r" to mean "too long, read" as in he did read the entire post. Oh well, not always is he anywhere nearly as funny as he thinks he is ;)
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