don't be afraid - you don't need legs to walk. Frederic Gros in the book "Philosophy on foot"describes not pacing, but a slow, aimless, but meaningful way of traveling.
How many hours a week do you spend relaxing?
Nietzsche - such a philosopher, who is probably known to everyone, said:
"You need to escape from stimuli, allurements, the hustle and bustle of the world - all this comes at the cost of hours of suffering. You have to walk, walk for a long time, until you get distracted, get distracted, forget that hammer howl on your temples."
"I walk a lot in the woods, I talk to myself wonderfully."
And so Nietzsche spoke 1887 in a year when there was still more than a century left before the popularity of the Internet.
Glowing rectangles are engaging, and aimless travel is liberating
What is the resolution of your eyes? It is impossible to answer, because pixels are a purely technological invention. But can be thought out, that your eye can accept more or less 576 megapixels of video - or 70 times more than a 4K quality screen can display.
How many hours do you observe rectangles every day? Probably more than you spend sleeping. Of course I don't know, but check it out - get on Digital Wellbeing 1 or Screen Time 2 apps on your phone and check. You can check this moment. You will miss information from your computer, but admit it - you are probably even reading these letters on your phone?
Frederic Gros talks about three things in the book:
- Walking – not transportation from home to the store, but a journey through a meadow, forest, road or city streets without a greater purpose.
- Philosophers - and their life stories, how they discovered walking, how it helped them live a calmer, more productive life.
- Liberation - although this is not mentioned in the book's advertisements, it can be seen how important it is for the author to be free from constant noise, it is important to keep one's self. It is close to me.
You can read about all this in the book, but let me share a few thoughts that I particularly liked:
"When you walk, you escape the very idea of identity, the temptation to be someone, to have a name and a story. Being someone is great at smart parties where everyone has a story to tell. But isn't being something also a social obligation that comes after the self—because one must be true to one's self-portrait—a silly and tiresome fiction? The freedom of walking lies in nothingness: the walking body has no history, it is only a vortex in the vapors of an unremembered life."
"Slowness means perfect adherence, so close that the seconds fall one after the other, drop by drop, like the steady trickle of tapping on a stone." This stretching of time deepens space. This is one of the secrets of walking: taking a slow approach to the scenery gradually gets to know them."
"Basically, walking is always the same, putting one foot in front of the other. But the secret of that monotony is that it is the antidote to boredom. Boredom is the immobility of the body confronted with the emptiness of the mind.”
You can walk here
And not necessarily with your feet. If you find it difficult to walk, you can drive. Driving is not "cheating" because it is not important HOW to travel - it is important why.
The aimless walker sees more of the world because the process is more important to him than the end. He is happy to discover unseen places, unknown people. He wants to try something new or repeat what he experienced a long time ago. To visit places of childhood...
A walker does not have the thought of "oh when will I finally get there..." because he is free from his own (or others') created goal.
If you can just get out and go - go ahead, go, experience it too!
…But if it's hard for you, oh, I'm sure it can be - a lot of people feel bad when they're just 'resting', they want something more…
You can walk aimlessly, but with a map. When you don't care about getting to the point, but it would be nice if it happened by accident.
- For example, you can do Geocaching - it's such a game. There are hidden treasures all over the world, maybe right next to your house. These are small boxes at special places. The treasure is not the goal - it's nice if you find that box and can sign it. It is more important that you came to another undiscovered interesting place, to a building with history, a new square in your city...
- Or you can go by selected ones routes in your city - Vilnius there is "Part-time Vilnius" and "VilniusGo", Kaunas is "Kaunas" and "See in Lithuania" has hundreds of routes throughout Lithuania on foot, by bike, and by other means of travel.
- If you want more extreme walking - I definitely do not recommend it for beginners - you can also choose the pilgrimage routes. To Spain for Camino de Santiago it is not necessary to browse, because there is already and Camino de Lituano. But here only for extremes.
- An extremely simple way to walk is simply to discover your local parks, squares. There are more of them than you think there are near you! Don't you believe? Type in Google Maps search "park near me" and you will see how many places with nature are in your city! Anyone can walk in these parks, because they are probably very close to you. (By the way, it's hard to find a park that doesn't have a Geocaching treasure. That's how I got hooked on Geocaching, now I've found already 600+ treasures!)
I believe I have forgotten N more similar pages and apps - you can supplement me in the comments below 🙂
Is it worth reading "Philosophy on foot"? Worth it.
