I just discovered that my bike has a flat. I guess I will be walking. Not that walking is a bad thing. Sure, it hardly enjoys the reputation of other forms of transportation. Nobody ever takes joywalks. And certainly Sunday is a day for napping and driving, but never walking. Walking is just not the way to go. Stairs are replaced by stairmasters, while sidewalks give way to treadmills.
Walking has a lot of baggage to haul. Old curmudgeons are haunted by memories of walking to school uphill. While the justice system refers to criminals returning to the streets prematurely as getting to walk. In the workforce, to run with a project is to take it seriously, but to walk on a deal is to quit. Men lose promising women because they drag their feet (allusion to walking). Later, a marriage could end because a spouse walks out.
Basketball players know that a walk is a turnover. A Pittsburgh Pirate thinks of a play where the batter wins a victory over the pitcher but receives no credit in his average. Meanwhile, a typical pirate uses the term as a synonym for immediate execution over the ocean. However, the one headed for the plank has every reason to be walking on eggshells.
The size and sprawl of our cities tells us that we should not be walking. It is just too far. So we choose to ride, drive, catch, hail, jump, and cycle from one place to the next. But walking is not the mode of choice. Not that we avoid walking. We do it. But it will be done on a treadmill, indoors. This is great for multi-tasking. Yet it seems somewhat unnatural. So while it lacks the experience of a good walk, it is still very pedestrian.
2 Comments
September 23, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Want a ride?
September 23, 2008 at 9:14 pm
How much time/thought do you put into these?
Very well done