Big Hairy Feet

The next essay by Eric Bronson in The Hobbit and Philosophy extols the virtues of walking, something which Bilbo and his fellow dwarves had to do a lot in their journey to the treasure guarded by Smaug the dragon.  Walking of course is one way to get more exercise, although jogging or running burns more energy (but has a higher risk of injury).  Tolkien was apparently a slow walker, stopping to look at flowers and trees, while his friend C.S. Lewis (the author of The Chronicles of Narnia) was a speedier walker.  I’m of the speedy type and prefer to be at home indoors reading a book.   But the general message seems to be we need to slow down and enjoy nature.  Well, you can look at the trees and you can look at the flowers and so on, which is nice, but there is a lot that is going on with trees, flowers etc. to be appreciated which you don’t see by just looking.  However, you can get some idea of what is going on by reading a book.  You can take a walk in the woods and try and soak up the peace and tranquillity of the woods, look at the bark on the trees, the leaves and so on and if you’re lucky you might catch sight of a squirrel.  But what about understanding the ecology of the environment and seeing how all the different natural systems interact with each other?  To some this may be boring science.  For me, meditating on trees, leaves and bark can only do so much; I like to keep the mind active by learning.  Some apparently advocate meditating on the process of walking while you walk, being mindfully aware of the knee bending and so forth but I would easily get bored with this.  Of course walking being a physical activity is good for the body including the brain.  But I am not sure it necessarily matters so much if you do not pay attention to your immediate surroundings. 

Apparently according to Anthony Giddens in the modern age we are presented with a problem.  We place our trust in organisational systems such as GPS, credit cards, Facebook which involves relying on impersonal including hidden principles for our social existence.  Something apparently is always lost with each new technological advance.  Once your GPS tom-tom gives the wrong directions you realise this device was not really your friend. 

To my mind we are always reliant on impersonal principles to get things done no matter what.  A bicycle might seem a straightforward means of travel as well as walking.  In both cases they rely on electromagnetic interatomic forces (impersonal principles) not immediately obvious which we have to trust to work as they should.  A technological advance merely exchanges one set of impersonal forces to trust with another.  What’s the big deal?  I wouldn’t see a device such as a tom-tom as a friend; I might sometimes want to throw such a device out the window if it goes wrong. This is just normal frustration which can also happen with less advanced solutions to addressing problems in life.  

Anyway Tolkien’s solution to such a (pseudo?) problem is to take a walk.  Presumably the above is some kind of anxiety which I don’t happen to experience and thus don’t understand.