The Philosophy of Walking Review

I finished a couple hours ago and while the book remains fresh in my mind I want to address the feelings that it provoked on me. Firstly, this book took me a long time to finish, usually I would finish a 250 pages book in a week or two, but this one due to it being philosophy or maybe just because the topic at hand required for it to be enjoyed as a leisurely walk in the park that demands patience and slowness.

I picked this book up because it caught my attention at the sports section of Book People, my favorite Austin book store. It had a chapter on "the Urban Flâneur". In the edition I picked up which is the new edition, that chapter was at the end of the book, chapter 31 out of 33. And this is important because I discovered the word Flâneur on a trip to France I did a couple years ago. That trip around Europe, especially in France changed my perspective of life as I was chasing a slower way of living, one that could appreciate the vastness of life and nature while separating myself from the arduous task of living in a capitalistic world where our only purpose is to work.

For me the Flâneur was a form of rebelling against the fast pace environment where I grew up in, I was looking in France an answer to this lifestyle of constant rush and hurrying, of stress and mindless living. Discovering this word, and learning about the historical and artistic context of it allowed me to change my perspective about life and ultimately to get the word tattooed on my thigh, as a symbolic representation of my adventures through Paris and the French countryside.

Back to the book, I believe that books find you in the moment you need them the most, and this book showed up in front of me last year, finally I decided to buy it a couple months ago and started reading it at the end of may. It was all with the intention to reach chapter 31, to see what was written about the Flâneur, but it would have been very easy and instantly gratifying to skip to the back of the book and read that one chapter that interested me. Quite the contrary of what the teachings of the book and my intentions of slow and disciplined living entailed.

So I started, one chapter a day, sometimes not even finishing the whole chapter. The book was definitely up my alley, french intellectualization of one of the most basic aspects of life: walking. Through the eyes of various philosophers who had practiced the philosophy of walking and the different interpretations throughout time, it was an interesting but slow reading, in order to grasp all the abstract concepts that philosophy offers. It encouraged me at the same time, to pay more attention on my next leisure walks, on my commute, my hikes with friends and my bicycle rides around the trail, it was a great motivator to find presence in my daily life.

Nonetheless, certain chapters were kinda boring, not because it was not well thought of but because some of the stories did not really interested me. I was close to giving up and starting another book, but just as the hiker who perseveres, the self disciplined walker that the book talks about, I continued and found the pleasant surprise of delayed gratification and the feeling of pride after overcoming an obstacle.

The last 9 chapters of the book were the smooth finish line I was looking for in the horizon. I can say those were the most interesting chapters, obviously once he had laid down all the foundation through the first 24, but I enjoyed the last chapters more because he left the Christian religion aspect of it right after the Kierkergaard chapter and focused more on different tangible aspects of the art of walking.

He talks about pilgrimage and while he mentions religion, he focused more on the function of the pilgrim, and the "Camino de Santiago" as the current main route of pilgrimage in the modern world. In the following chapter, he talks about other forms of rituals that don't conform to common religion when he talks about the Huichol people of Mexico, and their ritualistic 400 kilometer walks to reach the Peyote plant, which was their source of the divine. Later he talks about the Cynic's approach to walking and the rawness of life that they preached. Then of the importance of strolls to disconnect from the imposed fast pace of the world, followed by an interesting chapter of the social purpose of walking exhibited in the French public gardens. Finally we reached the chapter about Kant, and his disciplined and monotonous life that he managed to enjoy, he built his life brick by brick, step by step a page a day. Only to finally reach the Urban Flâneur chapter, the finish line.

My long awaited chapter was enjoyed the same as reaching the top of the mountain, the end of the hike, and it's contents were exactly what I was looking for and needed. It expressed what I felt back in France during my time as a Flâneur. It was worth the wait and he gave me the right words to express what I had never been able to put into words.

Some honorable mentions, because of the time in which I read this book, were the chapters of Gandhi, and of walking together and the politics of celebration. I read those chapters, the day of one of the biggest peaceful protests around the US, and a mysterious military parade, and it seemed important to me to understand the philosophy behind it. The difference of a military march, the one that requires submission, obedience and rigidity. Compared to the one of celebration, the one that draws on the energy of the other, of everyone that has decided to show up to demand, to sing, dance, and lock arms together for a greater future.

To end this, the final two chapters were the perfect way to finish the book, it was a great way to show the other side, the part that is not divine about walking, the simple weariness, the cold environment where the divine is not found and the only thing left is to leave behind the abstract and focus on what is there, on the endurance and the fatigue. The weariness of walking as he describes in the last chapter, is what makes it worthwhile just as reading the book, after long period of walking, reading, and thinking, the reward is that feeling of weariness that puts a smile on your face and reminds you that you have accomplished so much. No amount of "productivity" can top the feeling of a well earned fulfilling weariness.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18339944-a-philosophy-of-walking