Walking

Posted for Melany Rivera (H2)

Walking is always an interesting subject to talk about, yet most do not read on the subject about it. The book I choose for the Final Report is “A Philosophy of Walking” by Frederick Gros. His concepts in this book often lack evidence behind them or theories, but Gros is really invested  in what he presents to the world through his work. He believes walking allows us time to play with ideas, explore concepts, and be wrong in our thinking without worrying about others “seeing the rawness of our thoughts”. Which is an interesting concept to me because whenever I have a troubled mind, I walk to find answers so that I can find someone to comprehend my thoughts instead of worrying about what everyone else thinks. In this book, Gros also explores many philosophers and how their lives was shaped by walking. The first words proclaimed in the book is Walking is not a sport. Putting one foot in front of the other is child’s play. However, it has been brought to my attention that at one point , walking was a sport. Throughout this book, each chapter was it’s own thing that includes topics such as freedom, speed, solitude, etc. Each section of titles unpack philosophical aspects of walking. Let’s start with freedom. Freedom can include throwing off one’s burden of cares and just forget business for a time by walking. Gros claims, “Only walking manages to free us from our illusions about the world” Which is weird to me because there are multiple ways to free ourselves such as sleeping. He follows up that sentence with the statement, “By walking you are not going to meet yourself, by walking, you escape from the very idea of identity, the temptation to be someone, to have a name and a history” This goes hand in hand with Rebecca Solnit’s book about having a blank mind while walking because your soul and body has become one. Next concept is speed. Speed is important in walking because you do not want to tire yourself out before arriving at a destination. Gros proclaims that many people think that walking fast is key, we’re driven to get from point A to point B and we need to get there as quickly as possible, this is not leisure, not is it restful. Which is true because within the rush to get to each destination, it can force one to focus on catching your breath instead of deep philosophical questions. Which goes with the next topic of solitude. He claims that walking in groups forces one to jostle, hamper, walk at wrong speed for others. Number one rule for this book is walking is best alone. However, most of the time, this is correct but for a peripatetic class and discussion, this does not fit the criteria. To summarize the rest of the book, it can be said as walking is understood as a means of personal freedom that leads to a joy, happiness, or serenity. It is a short book and I would definitely refer this book to anyone to understand the true meaning of walking.