Thoreau: ‘The West of which I speak is but another name for the Wild; and what I have been preparing to say is, that in Wildness is the preservation of the world.’ That is why walking leads to a total loss of interest in what is called — laughably no doubt — the ‘news’, one of whose main features is that it becomes old as soon as it is uttered. Once caught in the rhythm, Thoreau says, you are on the treadmill: you want to know what comes next. The real challenge, though, is not to know what has changed, but to get closer to what remains eternally new. So you should replace reading the morning papers with a walk. News items replace one another, become mixed up together, are repeated and forgotten. But the truth is that as soon as you start walking, all that noise, all those rumours, fade out. What’s new? Nothing: the calm eternity of things, endlessly renewed. .Anonymous
About This Quote
The same can be said about reading. When you read a book, your mind is free to wander. You could be reading about the latest historical event that happened in the Middle East or the local news where someone was arrested for shoplifting. You can even find yourself thinking about something that happened last week.
When you finish reading the book, you will experience the same feeling of emptiness that you felt when you started reading it. The next thing that will catch your attention is the next book on your shelf or the newspaper right in front of you. You will seek to fill up this void by looking for whatever news there is, ready to pass it on to others.
But when you are walking, all of these distractions disappear. What’s new? Nothing: the calm eternity of things, endlessly renewed.
Source: A Philosophy Of Walking
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