“On the road the weak and strong points of character are revealed. There are those who complain, making each mile seem like three; there are those who have untapped reserves of cheerfulness, who sing their companions through the tired hours.” Stephen Graham Stephen Graham World Traveller
Category Archives: Philosophy
Quote: Soren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard, from a letter to his favorite niece, Henriette Lund, in 1847 “Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that oneContinue reading “Quote: Soren Kierkegaard”
Straight Walking
Over on walkspace , Pete Ashton presents this human anomaly for your musing.
Essay: George Macaulay Trevelyan “ Walking” 1914
“I have two doctors, my left leg and my right.”
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.
