When you walk, news becomes unimportant . . .

 

"When you walk, news becomes unimportant. Soon you have lost all knowledge of the world and its gymnastics, the most recent town goal, the latest scandal. You no longer await the surprise development, or want to hear how it really all began, or what happened in the end. Heard the latest? When you are walking, all that ceases to matter. Being in the presence of what absolutely endures detaches us from that ephemeral news for which we are usually agog. After walking far and long, you can even come to wonder in surprise how you could ever have been interested in it. The slow respiration of things makes everyday huffing and puffing appear vain, unhealthy agitation . . .

"The first eternity we encounter is that of rocks . . . , of the skylines: all that is resistant, unchanging. And being confronted with that overhanging solidity reduces trivial facts, the pathetic news, to the significance of dust blowing in the wind. A motionless eternity vibrating where it stands . . . Walking makes the rumors and complaints fall suddenly silent, stops the ceaseless interior chatter through which we comment on others, evaluate ourselves, recompose, interpret."

Frederic Gros,
"A Philosophy of Walking"

Photos: (Top) Sunset on Long's Peak, (Middle) Ice on Lake Haiyaha; (Bottom) Lichen-covered rock on The Loch; All three photos were taken in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, November 21-22, 2014