One of our members, Meg L, sent the following for us to consider. (Photo by Max W)
I wonder why I do love my walking and was drawn to this publication:
A Philosophy of Walking, by Frederick Gros,
Published by Verso 2015 and is the winner of English Pen Award.
I found it a delightful read with provocative statements and questions to think about. The author refers to well-known thinkers such as Thoreau, Gandhi, Nietzsche who loved to walk and wrote about it. For example, Nietzsche says that he walks to ‘Come by ideas’ while Rimbaud walks ‘to advance, to leave, to reach and leave again’. Thoreau finds that ‘walking magnifies receptiveness’. Each chapter contains gems to contemplate.
There are poignant life stories interspersed with the author’s own meditations on walking. The organisation of the contents covers a range of unpredictable perspectives such as Eternity, The Cynics Approach, Repetition, Energy and Pilgrims as a ‘metaphor for human life’, to name a few. An extended Reading List is included based upon each of the Chapter themes.
As the book descriptors say, ‘A Philosophy of Walking is an entertaining and insightful manifesto for putting one foot in front of the other ‘.
