The Humane Arts: WALKING

good evening ladies and gentlemen thanks for coming out on a finally a wintry day nice to have a winry day at long last um the subject for this evening is walking walking you know seems like a strange subject but hopefully it will make sense as we go along remember again we're talking about the Humane Arts what makes it possible to live a Humane life a Humane Society a Humane Community what gives rise to the kind of Artis IC and philosophical cultural scientific fluorescences that we have all benefited from and that we all look to as sort of the Pinnacle of human achievement um last time we talked about Leisure as being a component that is shared by many of the elements that are to become the first one is walking um I think without doubt the single most commonly cited Aid to creativity clear thinking uh composition development personal or artistic is walking I I made this list a brief list of dedicated Walkers I could have gone on and on and on and on it's ubiquitous throughout the cultural history in letters notes journals um books by authors we have clear and consistent references over and over again to the importance of walking to their own uh self-awareness the development of the depths of thought in their artistic processes philosophical ideas scientific ideas mathematical breakthroughs it comes up again and again and again it's just it's just consistent and ubiquitous and therefore I think often overlooked what's particularly remarkable about this is for most of human history if you wanted to go anywhere you had to walk and so these are people who are going out of their way to walk more than they have to walk already it's like like it's not like they don't walk cuz you have to you walk you don't take the bus in Athens right you wait a long time for the classical Athens uh so so the notion that even in an environment where walking consistently is required is a necessary component of day-to-day life that all of these uh individuals would go out of their way to talk about how important walking is to their process um I think should lead us or give us a big clue that this is hugely important and so I want to talk about why that is also again give ...