You gotta Walk the Walk

     I had an interesting experience over Thanksgiving Holiday that I wanted to talk through here. I am what some people call a "crazy walker." I choose to walk for exercise (as opposed to running or jogging) for various reasons including the following
a). I am incredibly lazy and walking seems the lesser of two evils.
b). Running hurts. That doesn't sound like a legit reason, but I have a bad hip and it truly does hurt.
c). I see a lot more, notice the world a lot more at a walking pace than I would at a running pace.

     So this Thanksgiving, I signed up  to do a "Feast and Feathers" 10K. It was a brisk morning, but the sun was somewhat shiny, and the leaves were a gorgeous shade of gold, still hanging on to the trees.
     As a walker, I find that I am often one of a few people walking with a pack of runners. Or because I walk rather quickly (about 5 miles an hour on a good day), I usually start with the mid-pack and the other walkers are somewhere behind me. 
     This particular event took place at Cunningham Lake in Omaha, NE on the trails. There were many places throughout the course that were narrow enough that we participants had to proceed in a single-file fashion. Because of this, especially at the beginning of the race, there were some traffic jams, for lack of a better term. As the race progressed, this happened less and less, but I still found times where I was stuck behind a jogger or runner-turned-walker or someone was stuck behind me.  When I got to those places where I could hear footsteps rhythmically pounding behind me, I felt obligated to step up my pace to at least a slow jog in order to make way for the runner behind me. I felt like I had to keep up or I'd be an annoyance to someone else. I didn't want to be in the way. I didn't want to be singled out or different from anyone else out there.
     As different people approached and I made room for them to pass, I felt myself shrinking off to the side of the trail in an effort to blend in or be less of a roadblock. But then it hit me; why should I feel that I had to change what I was doing, or who I am --a walker--just to accommodate everyone else? Why couldn't they be more accepting and just go around me? Why should I feel pressured to do something that makes me hurt and that I do not enjoy? I had all of these defensive thoughts going through my head. I created stories in my mind that the runners were annoyed by me and thought me to be less of an athlete because I was only walking. I felt that I was alone out there on this trail and they resented me when they had to walk and I passed them going up the steep hills. 
     After about 4.5 miles of first feeling guilty for walking, then frustrated, I had somewhat of a silly revelation of the metaphor I'd just created for humanity. All people at some point or another feel the same things I did.  While wandering through life, just like I wandered through the Cunningham Lake trails, we all have these kinds of thoughts and feelings.  Everyone feels at some point that they have to fit in to be okay. People waffle between wanting to go unnoticed and wanting someone to take notice. No one wants to be an annoyance. Call it the herd mentality, but no one wants to be singled out. 
      On the other side of that coin, people as a whole want to be accepted for who they are.  They don't want to change to fit an ideal. And the biggest realization for me was that people will continue to make up stories about those that are different from them in order to explain those differences. This happens daily. Be it the walker assuming the runners are annoyed with her, the different socioeconomic classes assuming that the rich are heartless bastards or the poor are lazy sponges, or humans pigeon-holing eachother into racial, gender, sexual orientation, or religious stereotypes. We continually make things up in our minds to account for each other's differences instead of trying to learn what makes us different and what makes us the same. No one should have to change who they are to fit in or be respected. We are all unique and important and innately the same. Instead of filling in the blanks with our own answers, let's try harder. Let's actually stop our brains from running rampant and take the time to learn about each other. 
 

I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they're stones that don't matter. As long as you're breathing, it's never too late to do some good. Maya Angelou
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mayaangelo578849.html?src=t_walking