The Culture of Walking: Less Fat, More Lean

Journal Entry: August 10,2010: Weight = 169.4 lbs; Coinage = $2.12 including two super finds in one walk (A super find is .50 or more in one location excluding car wash vacuum stations).

Feature Entry: The Culture of Walking: Less Fat, More Lean

Recently the MoneyWalker has been obsessed with discussions about fat and weight loss. In a forthcoming blog he will delve into the weighty issues (pun intended) of animal fat, trans fat, saturated fat, non-animal fat, artificial fat, non-saturated fat, fat grams and much much more. But not now! Instead, we will ramble on about the "lean" of walking; or, if you will, the culture of walking. Much of the content was inspired by Geoff Nicholson and his book The Lost Art Of Walking.

“A walk is never equally fascinating for its whole length.” The MoneyWalker usually takes 90 minute walks. In that period long stretches are uneventful but in 90 minutes the observant walker will witness amazing things. The same is true of finding money, long stretches often occur with nothing only to be followed with finds of multiple coins. One must be a "determined walker."

“I walk hard in the streets.” “You can’t walk as well when you get older.” “I’m very smart in the street.” The MoneyWalker still “zooms” when he walks, but not as fast or as “hard” as even one year ago. The big 70 is still a year or two away, but closing fast. As the years continue to mount, he is beginning to allow experience to compensate for reaction time in order to be safe on the street.

“Insouciance is certainly part of the perfect walk.” Whether one walks for pleasure, fitness, or in pursuit of ground scores, he or she must feel safe, unconcerned,and secure. Mostly the MoneyWalker feels safe about the walking environment, but there are times and situations that brings the hair on his neck in full lert. The solution, quickly move to safety.

Is walking a religious experience? “It may be pleasurable and worth doing, it may stop you from getting depressed, but in the end it’s just a walk. Why should you want it to be more?”

“When William Wordsworth was in the throes of composition he would stride up and down the garden path outside his home in Grasmere; walking and writing had for him become synonymous. And I do believe that there’s some fundamental connection between walking and writing.” The MoneyWalker’s attention during walking is usually divided between two things—searching for coins and semi-composing his next blog. In two plus weeks New Orleans will remember the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. My family found solace from these fine Wordsworth lines:

What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of Splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind. (Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations)

MoneyWalker