I saw a young woman walking along the sidewalk toward the crosswalk of a busy city block. She was in a professional caregiver's uniform and was either going to a patient or going home. What caught my eye and my imagination was that she was carrying a modern communication device, erroneously called a "cell phone." What she had in her hand would more properly be designated as a pocket computer. That digression aside, I went off to my younger days and remembered all the places to which I walked, and a little later, rode my bicycle. It seem to me that I ALWAYS had to carry something with me, either out of necessity or out of "convenience." Always. I had to carry my school books; I had to carry small packages of groceries; I had to carry my sports equipment; I had to carry my lunch bucket, or bag, depending on the year and the availability of one of the two lunch buckets we had in the house. For years, I would have moments when I would dream and wish that I could just walk along with absolutely nothing to carry. Just let my arms be arms and follow the rhythm of my natural gait. Oh, how I yearned for the opportunity. I thought it would never come. Then, just like everything else, the opportunity came. But there were strings attached. Walking was the one exercise that was free, [like in, no $ required]. What a joke! Walking isn't free. It shackles you to a schedule; it ties you to a given distance to be conquered in every decreasing amounts of time into infinity. [Infinity just triggered another "thought".] But, hey, at least the accompanying package walks under her own power, so I don't have to carry a load. My arms are free to maintain the rhythm of the gait. When I walk to her left, I don't even have to carry the full load of what she says into my deafer ear. Actually, the discipline required to maintain an exercise regimen is a load, but the freedom it brings is a gift.
Let me tell you that there is one way to walk that I enjoy most of all. I am in fourth or fifth heaven [seventh is for other things,] when I am in a natural, human-free environment surrounded by flowers, trees, bushes, water, the clouds and the sky and the animals, especially birds. There I walk carrying a pair of binoculars around my neck, and occasionally in my hands, of course. There was a time in my life when I did this a lot. Since then [50 years?] I have done it all too little. That is a walk that I like and it is one to which I can always be invited. When I see a bird flit for there to here; when I hear a chirp or a song, I have to follow it up. I guess we are always dreaming about something that we do not have. It must be human nature. In my case, I enjoy the dreams for an instant and then back to doing what I have to do. You have just read about dreams of action and circumstance. You will generally not catch me dreaming about things. I am comfortable about things and do not pine for better nor for more.
The one things that I do dream about is the fulfillment of my desire to die with my boots on, strapped and ready to go. That, and the warning that there is to be no crying at my funeral.
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