For the love of walking

22 Oct, 2023

Ever since I was old enough to be allowed outside without supervision I've taken to walking everywhere I could.

First it was around my neighborhood, getting to know every road, every alley, every nook. Walking by the places I had seen most of my life growing up allowed me to get to know them in a different light, teasing out their secrets with repetition and time. When one is young and without many responsibilities, as I was lucky to be, one can take the time to study things, take the world in as they say.

I eventually convinced some of my friends that lived close by to join me in my newfound hobby. We would take long, winding walks without any real purpose in mind besides that of spending time together, giving us a space to talk about big and small things, away from our parents and other distractions. It offered a kind of purity that I've found hard to recreate in later life.

Growing up walking remained my main means of transportation. Even when I could take the bus or borrow my parents car I would often opt not to, unless my destination was too far, or the weather to inclement.

I remember in my teens things changed and we started to walk towards an objective. Be it walking to the movie theater, to get something to eat, or buy cheap beers and cigarettes from a place around 30 minutes away, whose owner turned a blind eye to the fact that we were obviously underage. They were great times, everything under the sun was fresh and full of excitement, the felling that the world was our mollusk¹. At the time I didn't notice it but walking towards a goal affected the purity of the activity. It was no longer something we did for the hell of it (as another blogger on Bear recently put it), but more a means to an end. A means we were all comfortable with.

Later in life I went to study abroad and I had the luck to live close enough to my university campus² to be able to walk to and from classes. My walks had become solitary once again, and while lonely at times in some way it also allowed me to rediscover the joy of paying attention to the beauty around me.

By this time I had recently discovered audio books, and walking while listening to a good book quickly became one of my favorite activities. Audio books motivated me to again start walking for the hell of it. I would put on a good book and just walk. It was sort of a virtuous feedback loop where I walked because I wanted to listen to the book and I wanted to listen so I could go walking.

Now it's been many years since I came back to live to my original country. I moved to the countryside and have lots of nice walking paths I can go on nearby. However, I do find myself missing walking with other people. I no longer have any close friends, and those from my youth are no longer interested in walking for the hell of it. Most are busy pursuing their careers or other vain goals. I don't fault them, in many ways this has happened to me as well. I no longer walk as much as I would like. I guess this is what our culture would call growing up.

It's not all bad though, and I see hope on the horizon. I have a beautiful family and a 2 year old son from whom I'm constantly learning how to recognize what are the real things in life, the important things, and that awe is the natural state of our minds³.

I'm ironically reminded of Johnnie Walker's motto "Keep Walking"⁴. I don't think the company meant it like this, but it is a good rule to follow, keep doing things that you like because you like them and not to derive anything from them. Reevaluate your priorities if necessary, remember to always keep track of what the important things are. Small moments of hapiness go a long way.