“I have two doctors, my left leg and my right.”
Category Archives: Philosophy
Quote: Wanderlust
Rebecca Solnit “I like walking because it is slow, and I suspect that the mind, like the feet, works at about three miles an hour. If this is so, then modern life is moving faster than the speed of thought or thoughtfulness.” — Rebecca Solnit
Essay: For the full life experience, put down all devices and walk
To live with eyes on the screen is to be attached, stuck in the frame, taking in what is presented to us and re-presented to us again. But representation — even in fine-grained pixilation — is not experience. To experience is to perceive. When we look at a screen, we might see something, but we don’t perceive. To live life through representations is to live passively, to receive rather than to experience. It is also, we fear, to live the life of a follower.
Movie: The Great Walk
I commend this work by Clive Austin to the Order.
Podcast: An Account of Everest
James Strofeldt is a surgeon and psychotherapist from Melbourne, Australia, and a climber for over thirty years. This twenty five minute interview was originally broadcast on RN’s blueprint for living segment “Lost and Found”. James articulates his deep connection to being outside and gives us an insight into the high altitude mountain climber. A greatContinue reading “Podcast: An Account of Everest”
Walking as a Spiritual Practise
In reality, walking is about the slowest form of movement we can imagine. For the philosopher Frédéric Gros, “walking is the best way to go more slowly than any other method that has ever been found.” It is certainly not preferred by the driven or the busy; walking stands resolutely apart from things that propel. Commonly it’s the priorities of productivity and efficiency that overrule walking as dead or wasted time. Even the term pedestrian reeks of the dull and unmotivated. Regardless, the act of walking remains a very human one. It is an act of the spirit. For as long as human beings have inhabited this earth walking has been an act of longing and aspiration: we have walked to find home; we have walked in spiritual pilgrimage; we have walked to celebrate, to protest, and to commemorate; we have walked as a form of rest and recreation, and in pursuit of better health; we have walked to discover new worlds, to conquer new heights, and even to pray.
Essay: A step at a time towards appreciating nature
This essay by Canadian, Tian Ren Chu, is a grand articulation of both the importance and joy of walking.
Hemingway, Thoreau, Jefferson and the Virtues of a Good Long Walk
Like all walking related writing, age does not weary the content.
Poem: In Praise of Walking
“There are things we will never see, unless we walk to them. Walking is a mobile form of waiting. What I take with me, what I leave behind, are of less importance than what I discover along the way. To be completely lost is a good thing on a walk.” Thomas. A. Clark Thomas isContinue reading “Poem: In Praise of Walking”
Podcast: Walking a Pedestrian Pursuit
“Humans were made for walking. It is as natural to us as breathing. Yet we avoid it whenever and however we can.” Michael Enwright. The Sunday Edition This is a revisit of a 2013 recording about our humble pursuit. It’s a concise aggregation of historical topics as well the contemporary. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/walking-a-pedestrian-pursuit-1.5412014 I commend this workContinue reading “Podcast: Walking a Pedestrian Pursuit”
The Order Of Walkers 