Walking And Talking And Staying Human

Disconnect from AI and reconnect with your un-augmented self.

To walk is to be HUMAN.

Sitting in my spot at the dining room table enjoying a meal, I’m looking out our front windows and reminiscing about all the walkers that have passed by our house on Elm Boulevard for 168 seasons over 42 years. I guesstimate that I’ve seen approximately 500,000 walkers who have passed by in a continuous parade of vibrant, colorful and joyful humanity. I never get tired of watching and enjoying this simple pleasure.

Individual walkers of every race, color, creed and age have strode down the sidewalk, some wearing headsets while listening to music or a podcast or talking to a friend.

I’ve observed families and their kids who have grown from infants in a stroller to toddlers taking first steps; from kindergarteners pedaling hot wheels to first-graders riding starter bikes; from seasoned elementary students riding big bikes to middle-schoolers on skateboards and scooters; and finally, high schoolers pulling up in their driveways in cars, then off to college and graduation and the real world. I’ve seen this arc of family life over and over from this same spot at the dining room table.

I’ve seen just as many owners with their dogs who never miss their daily walks: morning, noon and night. Back in the day the dogs used to poop on my lawn, but civilization advanced and now the owners carefully scoop-the-poop into plastic bags. Walkers with dogs intersect along the sidewalk and either canine-chaos or good conversation ensues.

Once I saw a man walking by with an unleashed cat trailing him 20 feet behind in perfect synchronization. When the man would stop, the cat would stop; when the man would go, the cat would go. And one year several young girls chalked a never-ending hopscotch up and down the whole block. Walkers would stop and read and hop and skip, inspired by their “inner kid.”

Young and old couples have gone by talk, talk, talking and waving their arms in the air as they expressed their thoughts, occasionally stopping and pointing to a house or a tree or a dog or a cat or a bird or a rabbit or a squirrel, because we’ve got many critters in our neighborhood.

We’ve had “walking buses“ where one or more families escorted their kids to our neighborhood schools and then they met the kids after school to escort them safely home. It remains a happy social exercise for both parents and children.

It’s all there right outside my window, every day, free of charge.

From time to time I will see a random stranger come through who I like to call “The Walking Man,“ (from the famous song by James Taylor) with his head down in deep thought while leaning into his stride:

Walking man, walk on by my door

Well, any other man stops and talks

But not the walking man

He's the walking man

Born to walk, walk on walking man.

I’m sure your neighborhood is a great one too and worthy of a pleasant walk-through, but there are a few things that attract walkers down my street. Elm Boulevard is the north-south connector between West Side Park and Hessel Park (1 mile apart). Also, I’ll wager our block is one of the most walkable locations in Champaign-Urbana. In 15 minutes I can walk north to downtown Champaign; or east to the University of Illinois; or south to Biaggi’s Restaurant; or west to The Original Pancake House. What more do you need?

TRY THIS: Start at Hessel Park and walk around the perimeter and then walk north down Elm Boulevard to West Side Park. Walk around West Side Park and then walk south down Elm Boulevard back to Hessel Park. It’s 3.35 miles and you can probably walk it in an hour if you don’t get distracted by conversations with strangers or petting too many dogs.

But most important, TO WALK IS TO BE HUMAN. We need to hang on to our humanity in this crazily-accelerating AI world. We must protect against too much “cognitive offloading” as best we can, so put down your cell phone, stand up, and walk away from your TV and computer monitor and go for a long walk. Just get out there and feel the breeze, smell the trees and flowers, listen to the natural world around you, and let your mind wander while totally disconnecting from the AI world and reconnecting with your un-augmented self.

And if you happen to go down Elm Boulevard and spot me mowing the front lawn, please stop by and say hi.