Walking

Walking interests me. I was somewhere recently watching people walk. They were going everywhere in all directions. People, young and old were finding the need to be somewhere else. Some desires were intense while others were more casual.

We don’t even think about walking unless we for some reason can’t do it. My father spent the last fifteen years of his life in a wheel chair. He told me he often dreamt of walking. He would wake with momentary joy thinking he actually did walk again, but realized the reality when the dream faded as he awoke.

I once spent some time with friends who had just finished medical school. As we drove through the city they would discuss the pathology of people walking down the street. You can tell a lot about people by the way they walk.

Walking as a biped is interesting. You actually lean and fall forward and then you catch yourself quickly with another foot. Continuing with the momentum you lean forward and begin another fall and catch your self with your other foot.

The first steps of a toddler are magical. You can actually see them get it and they keep improving their skills and learn to run and eventually dance.

Sometimes I stand back and look at the patterns of my walking on the dew sprinkled lawn while doing my morning chores. There is a lot of coming and going. Animal tracks in the snow are always interesting as well. Rarely ever a direct line is seen. Meandering is the way of like with animals as well. It reminds me of the comic strip "Family Circus" where the cartoon shows the varried path of children as they go about their day. A straight line is never seen.

All of it is a flirt with a fall, but we continue forward.