My husband and I are Monty Python fans, and not long ago we re-watched an episode of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” that includes the sketch “The Ministry of Silly Walks.” If you’ve never seen this, John Cleese plays a bowler-hatted civil servant who is responsible for developing silly walks for a British government department called — you guessed it — The Ministry of Silly Walks. Like all Monty Python sketches, the premise is completely ridiculous, and that’s exactly the point. I bring this up because I’m currently reading a book about walking — “Walking One Step at a Time” by Erling Kagge — and I couldn’t help but think about The Ministry of Silly Walks and feel some relief that, for the most part, walking is a straightforward affair.
Because walking — both straight and silly — has been on my mind lately, I thought it would be interesting to see how many walking-related books are in the library’s collection. Would it surprise you to learn that there are quite a few, particularly about the philosophy of walking and how the simple act of taking a walk improves not just physical health but also mental and emotional well-being? One of the most well-known perambulators was philosopher and essayist Henry David Thoreau. He was a strong proponent of exploring our natural surroundings, best done with feet on the ground, walking and wandering through nature; he even wrote an essay entitled “Walking,” which later contributed to the development of his most famous work, “Walden.”
But, since Thoreau’s time, many other authors have expounded on the benefits of perambulation. The book I mentioned above, “Walking One Step at a Time,” is a lyrical tribute to walking, and according to author Erling Kagge, it’s “one of the most important things we do.” He says walking allows us to be in the moment because with other methods of traveling — such as driving — “life is curtailed” and “everything becomes one blur.” When walking, the brain is free to think deeply or not; but most importantly, walking becomes “the antidote to the speed at which we conduct our lives.”
So, take a walk on the bibliographic side, and read about the pleasures of putting one foot in front of the other.
