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Long Walks

I have been a fan of long walks for as long as I can remember. Was good to read this article about why walking helps us think. It is full of interesting nuggets like this one

 Thomas DeQuincey has calculated that William Wordsworth—whose poetry is filled with tramps up mountains, through forests, and along public roads—walked as many as a hundred and eighty thousand miles in his lifetime, which comes to an average of six and a half miles a day starting from age five.

 That is truly impressive. For the last few years, I have been doing about ten miles a week which is a silly number compared to what Wordsworth clocked in. The grandfather of a childhood friend I had, was regarded as an eccentric by everyone who knew him because he went out for a walk after breakfast, returned for a small lunch and resumed walking after that to return only at dusk. They had a small dog who was excited to head out with him in the morning but refused to return after lunch. 

 There were sightings of the grandpa around the small town and people would routinely inform my friend's parents when they saw him. He was a man of few words, kept to himself when at home engrossed in reading. To us kids, he stood out as different from other grandparents we knew. We were intrigued by his walks and also by his reticent manners. When I look back now, I wonder what his life was like before he had the luxury of time to walk as much as he did. If he had some personal demons to fight or perhaps as this article concludes he was trying to organize the world around him.

 Walking organizes the world around us; writing organizes our thoughts. 

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