Walking and Thinking
“I can only meditate when I’m walking. When I stop, my mind ceases to think; my mind only works with my legs.”
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
A very interesting and thoughtful post by Daniel Nairn on Discovering Urbanism, about the “long-standing connection between walking and thinking in the lineage of Western philosophy.”
There seems to be something about walking that hits the perfect balance between peace of mind and energy of movement. Somehow I doubt that the survival instincts generated by a rush-hour drive to the regional SuperStore discount outlet and a lap around the parking lot inspires the same level of contemplation.
It’s so true! I get so many creative ideas for fiction, craft projects, and other stuff when I go for walks. Definitely don’t get that driving to the Wal-Mart.
That’s totally true for me…
But what do you think about this negative correlation between “urbanity” and deterioration of thinking skills
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/01/04/how_the_city_hurts_your_brain/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed1
I don’t think anything of it. I think it’s a ridiculous statement – of course quality urban environments don’t “rot the brain.” One need only look at the massively huge list of people from across history who lived in urban environments and gave us genius – Mozart, Picasso, Edison, Tesla, Pupin, the Wright brothers, Bach, Leonardo, Aristotle, Warhol…the list goes on and on.
I know I certainly feel far happier in quality urbanity than I do in the suburbs.
Look at Paris and New York City and Portland, OR–these are all very urban places and spawn tons of creative people, thinkers, innovators. If anything, I think the suburbs rot your brain–there’s no variety, no good architecture, you spend hours in your car when you could be doing stuff.