Jain Spirit 2004 06 No 19

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 39

MIND
that perhaps we do not walk because there are no sidewalks. Even today, the typical urban planner continues to regard "the pedestrian as the largest single obstacle to free traffic movement."
Like Thomas Jefferson, walking remains for me the best 'of all exercises. Even so, I am full of excuses to stay put. My neighbourhood has no sidewalks and it is downright dangerous to stroll the streets at night. If the threat does not come directly from thugs, then from drunken teens in speeding cars. There are certainly no Philosopher's Walks in my hometown, as there are near the universities of Toronto, Heidelberg and Kyoto. Nor are there any woods, forests, mountains or glens. "When we walk, we naturally go to the fields and the woods," said Thoreau. "What would become of us, if we only walked in a garden or a mall?" I suppose I am what becomes of us, Henry.
At noon, if the weather cooperates, I may join a few other nameless office drudges on a stroll through the riverfront park. My noon walk is a brief burst of freedom in an otherwise long, dreary servitude. No one is naive enough to believe that all or at least some of society's ills can be cured by a renaissance of walking, but maybe - just maybe walking might help initiate some fresh scientific theories, a unique literary movement, a new vein of philosophy. Ultimately, it would involve a change in thinking and a shift in behaviour, as opposed to a change of channels and a shift into third gear.
Christopher Orlet (www.christopherorlet.net) is an essayist and book critic based in Illinois, USA.
Pilgrimage on foot is
central to the Jain tradition
Po Povate & Personal Use Only
Photo and illustration: James Mararin-Baird