“If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again, – if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man, then you are ready for a walk.” – Henry David Thoreau
When I first read that quote by Thoreau I was immediately reminded of what Jesus said in Luke 14:26
“If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” – Luke 14:26 KVJ
It is clear to me that our Massachusetts woodsman, a Harvard educated woodsman mind you, is having a fun time borrowing a few ancient words for his essay Walking. Yet how can one elevate the status of a walk to the same rank as the spiritual salvation of the human soul, promised by Jesus in his utterance thousands of years prior. Perhaps it is in this comparison where we gain a sharp and radical glimpse of what these American Transcendentalists truly thought about nature and her glory.
Thoreau’s warning to those who still have worldy affairs is echoed time and time again, not only in his essay Walking, but throughout his entire body of work. For Thoreau, just as it was for Christ, we have to be ready to leave it all behind if we truly want the good life.
“I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile in the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit… But it sometimes happens that I cannot easily shake off the village.” – Thoreau
For Thoreau a walk is more than physical exercise, in fact calling it such would be blasphemous. A walk done right is a spiritual initiation. Have you ever had such a walk?
As an outdoorsman I have had such walks. Those when I find myself stumbling over a mountain pass or perusing the barren wasteland of a Desert canyon, only to suddenly look up and find myself seized by the beauty and grandeur I face. I have even had such walks in the city. When I have decided to throw my afternoon to the wind and walk in a certain direction until something interesting happens. Some days I will wander for miles and miles around Nashville with nowhere to be and no one to see, except for wherever I am and whoever I am with.
A walk is surely one of the purest forms of exercise and countless philosophers and sages of old have found the well of their creativity and wisdom by way of long walks.
So now I wonder what have we truly lost by relegating this divine art to the past? As we take to the highways to get everywhere we need to go what flashes of insight and knowledge have we passed on by saving ourselves an extra thirty minutes here or there and driving instead of going on foot? These are some of the questions I ask myself as I read this essay by Thoreau.
These ideas and more were discussed at the Meriwether Study Club meetup in Nashville Wednesday morning on the 18th, and if this type of conversation is something you see benefitting your life then you may enjoy joining us.
Until next time.
Respectfully,
Warren Steury