Three years ago I quit driving my car and started walking everywhere. (Happy anniversary, feet.) It started as an experiment- I wanted to see what it would be like living in rural/suburban Midwestern American without a car. This was interesting from the start since our subdivision didn't have a sidewalk leading out. Originally, I was searching for a sense of place, narrowing the otherwise overwhelming task of understanding/knowing a community to the area which I could travel on foot. This is how I'd always chosen to see a place when traveling somewhere new, so I applied it to where I lived. After a year of daily walking in DeKalb, Illinois (my final year of grad school), we moved to France, and it's how I've learned the landscpe here (if not the language). Up until this past March, Derek also managed by bike and bus, until he needed to make frequent, anytime day-or-night trips to a further work facility. Which, okay, I'll admit I benefit from a ride home from the grocery store (but I'm still not driving and make the 6 mile walk to get there). It's not quite the same as my previous independence, but I don't think I'll go back to owning a car or driving. Three years, and walking over 10,000 kilometers has given me lots of thinking time and has reached into all parts of daily life (it's also worn the soles off several pairs of shoes). I could babble endlessly on what walking has taught me about distance, about values (American and French), about spacial relationships, about weather, about myself, but here's something someone else said, and I like it:
All walking is discovery. On foot we take the time to see things whole. ~Hal Borland
