Now, that's a quote

“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk.  Every day 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 one cannot walk away from it.  But by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus, if one keeps on walking, everything will be all right.” – Soren Kierkegaard

Now, that’s a quote.

My niece Allison, who writes beautiful poems and short stories, steered me toward “Wanderlust:  A History of Walking” by one of her favorite authors, Rebecca Solnit.  As Allison and I share so many things – from a love of the same books and movies to a seeming inability to close cupboards and drawers that we’ve opened – I ordered the book off Amazon and even paid extra for fast shipping, because I knew I’d love it as much as she did.

Maybe I should mention that Allison is about six times smarter than I am. 

I delved eagerly into the book, hoping to share quotes and insights like Kierkegaard’s above.  They may be in there, but first you’re going to have to wade through prose like this:  “Occasionally I focused on the act of walking, but mostly it was unconscious, the feet proceeding with their own knowledge of balance, of sidestepping rocks and crevices, of pacing, leaving me free to look at the roll of hills far away and the abundance of flowers close up: brodia; the pink papery blossoms whose name I never learned; an abundance of cloverlike sourgrass in yellow-bloom; and then halfway along the last bend, a paperwhite narcissus.” How about this: “Or perhaps walking should be called movement, not travel, for one can walk in circles or travel around the world immobilized in a seat, and a certain kind of wanderlust can only be assuaged by the acts of the body itself in motion, not the motion of the car, boat or plane.”  Or this: “The multiplication of technologies in the name of efficiency is actually eradicating free time by making it possible to maximize the time and place for production and minimize the unstructured travel time in between.” 

And that’s just the first chapter.  

Ms. Solnit is a fine writer, but I don’t think I’ll be lobbying to accompany her on a long-distance walk anytime soon. 

The first words I heard when I strapped on my ipod this morning were the ominous “Battery low.”  I rode it out til it died a few notes into Supertramp’s “Goodbye Stranger” in front of St. Ed’s Mary Moody Theater, then took an unplanned detour back to Stacy Park (my new favorite venue), returning home six minutes short of my 90.  You know the drill from there – dropped off Banks, filled his water bowl, and made up the last few minutes on neighboring streets.

Ipod is charging, and I’m looking for some new tunes to download.  Any suggestions, Allison?  J