{"id":3417,"date":"2024-12-11T07:35:23","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T14:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=3417"},"modified":"2024-12-11T07:35:23","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T14:35:23","slug":"walk-to-do-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=3417","title":{"rendered":"Walk To Do Nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cDoing nothing is hard to do,\u201d wrote Rebecca Solnit in Wanderlust<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s best done by disguising it as doing something, and the something closest to doing nothing is walking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solnit\u2019s point is that our modern culture is consumed with productivity. For your activity to be valuable, it must produce\u2014more money, more friends, more health\u2014and so walks must do likewise. If you don\u2019t have a clear purpose and a measureable goal, the thinking goes, then what\u2019s the point? You haven\u2019t done anything.<\/p>\n

So Solnit disagreed with the premise. Sometimes you can walk to do nothing.<\/p>\n

But she still doesn\u2019t tell me how to do that.<\/p>\n

So I Googled it\u2014\u201cbeing as opposed to doing.\u201d The AI gave me the pop psychology I expected. \u201cLearn to be present in the moment, accept yourself as you are, find fulfillment from within rather than constantly striving to achieve goals through activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

I guess that\u2019s all good, but I found more help in poetry and theology.<\/p>\n

Theology first\u2014the Apostle Paul said that the Gospel is more about receiving a gift than keeping a set of rules (Romans 4, Ephesians 2). Do so, he said, and you become someone different (\u201cbeing\u201d rather than \u201cdoing\u201d).<\/p>\n

The Romantic poets had the same approach to nature (which they accessed through walking). In \u201cTables Turned\u201d William Wordsworth said we should stop with the study of books and science (doing) and \u201clet nature be your teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEnough of Science and of Art;
\nClose up those barren leaves;
\nCome forth, and bring with you a heart
\nThat watches and receives.\u201d<\/p>\n

A heart that watches and receives\u2014that\u2019s receiving the gift\u2014that\u2019s \u201cbeing not doing\u201d\u2014something I plan to try on my next walk.<\/p>\n

*Tomorrow\u2019s blog is about walking to get lost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDoing nothing is hard to do,\u201d wrote Rebecca Solnit in Wanderlust. \u201cIt\u2019s best done by disguising it as doing something, and the something closest to doing nothing is walking.\u201d Solnit\u2019s point is that our modern culture is consumed with productivity. For your activity to be valuable, it must produce\u2014more money, more friends, more health\u2014and so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3418,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3417\/revisions\/3418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}