Familiar journeys shorten:
Ten miles become one.
Following my frivolous (?) inspiration a few weeks ago that I would like to walk back home (to England, that is), I have been thinking that, if I am to start moving this notion from the realm of idle fantasy into that of the realisable, I should probably undertake a few demanding but less extreme trials, some long-distance walks to destinations in China. And for even that much more modest objective to become realisable, I need to improve my fitness level quite a bit. Well, I need to improve my stamina quite a bit: I think, with something like very long-distance walking, it's mental determination as much as physical robustness that you need to cultivate. And so, over this past week or two, I have taken to walking everywhere. Really, everywhere. I haven't taken a taxi since I got back from my holidays. I am walking a minimum of 10 miles every day, sometimes 20 or more.
The phenomenon of long journeys seeming shorter when you've done them a few times (walking back from Sanlitun, and beyond, three nights out of four this week: 6, 7, 8 miles), is not, I think, a matter of increased pace or diminished fatigue: it's that you stop paying attention to things along the way. It's nicely meditative, but probably not really what you want if you're journeying through novel terrain, hoping to soak up the experience of new places.
There's also a strange counter-phenomenon. Quite often - with the walks that I do most frequently - weariness and impatience to get home (it's late at night, and I've had a few drinks) can make a relatively short distance seem intolerably elongated. The brain - it's a funny thing.
2 comments:
Meant to tell you that I saw a haiku-themed T-shirt last week at the Threadless site.
Not all that ingenious a joke, but it was nice to see the literary form celebrated with any joke.
I should be writing for them, obviously.
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