You know how everyone takes long strolls in all those Jane Austen and Bronte novels? When they are not heading to a ball at someone’s estate, they are walking the grounds, sharing meaningful glances along the moors and “taking a turn” around the garden.
It may be a sign of my age that I can remember taking walks that didn’t involve any particular destination. Not prescription walks for exercise, loaded with conversation-killing distance and time goals. Just walks because that is what you did after dinner back before ipads and obesity epidemic scares.
Does anyone do this anymore? Just go for a walk with your neighbors?
Recently I went for vigorous walk with a bunch of strangers. The “excuse” was exercise but I love a good walk enough to pretend that that was irrelevant and struck up some conversation instead. I quickly learned that one of my fellow walkees shared my irrational aversion to “doubling back” ( I HATE to retrace my steps) and just like that, we were friends.
So I reflected on how, in all my favorite Austen and Bronte novels, all it really took to sort the friends from the strangers, was a good long hike up a hill for a picnic.
Walking is the perfect metaphor for life. We all have our habits and preferences. It’s not a complete surprise when these play out on the trail. You can learn a lot about a person by the paths they choose and the challenges they prefer.
Just for fun, pull your best friend or mate aside and answer the following:
- You’re heading out for a hike and will have to return to the same place do you start at the top of the hill, go down and come back up, or start at the bottom, climb up and head back down? Why?
- Halfway through your walk you have a choice. You can turn back and retrace your steps or you can continue on walking in a loop. If you continue in a loop, the route may be more difficult and/or unpredictable. Do you keep going?
- You are walking along a path and the sun is setting. The view is magnificent from the path, but there is a viewpoint where you can sit to observe the “show”. Do you carry on walking slow and steady, enjoying as you go or do you hurry up to get to the spot where you can sit and enjoy the view.
- If someone asks how much farther do you reply: A hundred yards, a little ways or we’ll get there when we get there?
- When you are walking with others do you tend to walk single file or side by side? Who goes first if you’re single file?
- When you are walking with a group, do you stay with the group or forge ahead? Or hang back?
- Where does your gaze fall if you are out on a stroll. Are you more likely to see bunnies in the clouds or find semi precious rocks?
- If you see something interesting on the horizon that is off the trail, do you make a mental note of it but stay on the path or do you deviate from the path and trailblaze?
- Are you more likely to splash in every puddle, or go out of your way to avoid having to walk in wet/muddy shoes?
- Are the green things you encounter referred to as “Trees and bushes” or Sycamores and Sagebrush?
Hike Psychology