The slow death of purposeless walking
1–10 of 188 posts
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#2An odd bit of the history of walking I recently learned about:
http://www.npr.org/2014/04/03/297327865/in-the-1870s-and-80s...
> We may think of baseball as America's national pastime, but in the 1870s and 1880s there was another sports craze sweeping the nation: competitive walking. "Watching people walk was America's favorite spectator sport," Matthew Algeo says in his new book, Pedestrianism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestrianism
> During the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, pedestrianism, like running or horse racing (equestrianism) was a popular spectator sport in the British Isles. Pedestrianism became a fixture at fairs – much like horse racing – developing from wagers on footraces, rambling, and 17th century footman wagering.[1] Sources from the late 17th and early 18th century in England write of aristocrats pitting their carriage footmen, constrained to walk by the speed of their masters' carriages, against one another.[2] By the end of the 18th century, and especially with the growth of the popular press, feats of foot travel over great distances (similar to a modern Ultramarathon) gained attention, and were labeled "pedestrianism".
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#3On the other hand, shower thinking is alive and well. Probably far more common than it was 100 years ago, too.
Wastes more water though..
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#4On the other hand, shower thinking is alive and well. Probably far more common than it was 100 years ago, too. Wastes more water though..
Not as much as baths, which were more common in my childhood.
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#5This article makes some fantastic points. I find it sad that we force ourselves to have outwardly facing purpose to almost everything we do. Even if purposeless walking has the internal reason of more thought and creativity, we can't do that because there seems to be an over arching need to have an outward requirement to all activity (complete a project, get more exercise, fulfil some need, etc).
This was driven home forceful to me in elementary school, quite a lot of years ago but it stuck with me. A friend of mine, who is now a very successful medical doctor and still quite close to me to this day, would walk around the yard with me at any recess. All recess, every day. Sometimes we would say nothing, sometimes we would have long discussions. My principal pulled us in after a number of months and said "your aimless walking is unproductive and will lead to problems, play a sport or find a game and stop it." We didn't listen, and so far we have been very productive in life, and haven't caused too many problems at all.
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#6I enjoy walking around a park near my house, and I find I can have some great ideas usually. I disagree with the 'no soundtrack' suggestion; I have found that listening to music does not stop the ideas from flowing. I also enjoy listening to Mixergy interviews while walking around this same park, Often if the interview is especially interesting, I end up extending my walk so that I don't miss any of it.
And then, at the end of the walk, I come back to reality and the peacefulness comes to an end, replaced with kids, business, other distractions. For a while though, I am in my own little world wandering around.
I usually try to bring a pen and paper with me to write ideas down, I find that typing the ideas into my phone is not as satisfying somehow.
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#7This article makes some fantastic points. I find it sad that we force ourselves to have outwardly facing purpose to almost everything we do. Even if purposeless walking has the internal reason of more thought and creativity, we can't do that because there seems to be an over arching need to have an outward requirement to all activity (complete a project, get more exercise, fulfil some need, etc). This was driven home…
Is this common in whatever country you're in? If this happened where I went to school, there'd be words at the PTA meeting. Your principal is some kind of control freak.
It doesn't sound normal at all.
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#8Even in the city, walking without purpose can be done. During an unemployment spell in the 2008 meltdown, I did a lot of very long (2+ hour) walks with limited destinations in mind other than "Far North" or "Far South". I did them without soundtracks or texting. They gave me a much bigger appreciation for the city. Beauty doesn't just exist in the woods.
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#9And here an article on the slow death of the purposeless browsing http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/the-death-o...
Re: The slow death of purposeless walking
#10Even in the city, walking without purpose can be done. During an unemployment spell in the 2008 meltdown, I did a lot of very long (2+ hour) walks with limited destinations in mind other than "Far North" or "Far South". I did them without soundtracks or texting. They gave me a much bigger appreciation for the city. Beauty doesn't just exist in the woods.
Cities are wonderful places for aimless walking! When I travel to a new city, my favorite thing to do is to leave 2-3 days at the beginning completely unplanned and just walk out the door of my room and start walking.
On a recent visit to SF, I was waiting for a friend to finish with work. He invited me to stay and hang out at his company cafeteria. When I declined, saying I'd rather go wandering, he and his friends looked at me like I was some kind of partially deranged maniac. I had a great time!