Shall We Walk?

by Pura-Santillan-Castrence

A loud-mouthed woman, with the market brand stramped on her face and bearing, is haggling over the price of a ride with an equally tough cochero. Words are exchange, voices become excited and shrill, but you are already out of hearing distance. All your interest is now taken up by an old couple, worn-out and thin to emaciating, but still with the light of love and adventure in their eyes. You see the man gallantly giving his arms to his wife as they staggeringly cross the street. You wipe the mist in your eyes, and it is good that you do so in time or you would not see two little children, their attention centered upon some candy displayed on a counter near the sidewalk, coming plump into your path. You step aside, watch the eager hungriness of their look.

Maybe such city sights fatigue you as they do some people who prefer using a walk for meditation purposes; then take to the wide open spaces. Don’t protest too soon…. You need not leave the city nor your job; you can simply take a little time to get out of the streetcar lines and busy-streets, and seek the fields or the less trodden path of so called civilized life. Walk and think, allowing Nature to soothe your bruised spirit. Let the swaying grass teach you the beautiful lesson of resilience, of bending to the inevitable, the wind of circumstance. Let the flower teach you the essential perpetuity of life, and the bird, the joy of existence. The tree, symbol of dignity and serenity, indifference and aloofness, is to make you see, with a sense of balance, trivialities for what they are; the little lakes, sometimes mere puddles, full of tadpoles and fishes and insects, to show you that life sprouts anywhere, that your own, for all its seeming importance

Shall We Walk?

by Pura-Santillan-Castrence

Perhaps you have a problem. Some would-be advisers walk it. Walk it and see it from different angles. Walk it and see it for the first time against the background of the whole universe. And while walking, says an expert on the subject, “think tall, pull your chin up and throw your chest forward no matter how heavy a burden you carry on your shoulder.”

With your sense of proportion restored by quiet deliberation and by the palpable sympathy of Nature all around you, you strike at one solution, then another. Your judgment, made clear by the classmates brought about by your walk and your surroundings, becomes sound and wise. You reach a decision, and it is generally good.

Walk and know yourself. You will be surprised to find out what an enjoyable companion you can be to yourself. Don’t be like the man who gets so bored being left alone with his thoughts that he has to have a book with him all the time he is not with people. Books have their place, too and an important place it is, but so have walking and getting acquainted with yourself. Just thresh out the little doubts you have regarding this and that, mull over remarks made by your friends or office mates, study the personalities you have come across during the day. It’s fascinating pastime. And all this while you are taking your constitutional walk.

Shall we walk this once then, Milady?

Comprehension Questions

1. What are some tips the author gives regarding how to do walking?

2. What are some other benefits of walking beside good muscular health?

3. Would you recommend walking as a good exercise in your community? Why or why not?

4. With which of the author’s points do you strongly agree and why?

5. How different do you think was the author’s city compared to today’s cities?