My mother told me once that Werner Herzog walked from Munich to Paris to heal his friend who was very ill. She told me this when her own publisher and close friend fell ill, and wondered if she should begin to walk to Pune from Hong Kong, where she was, and if he would recover by the time she got to him. He got well by himself, and she did not need to make the journey. But she was quite serious, I believe, when she said it. I remembered this story yesterday as I neared the end of my walk. I started going on long walks only after my mother died. I don’t know whether walking long distances will heal a loved one or not, and won’t go too far into the idea that my mother could have been alive today if only I had walked across continents to be by her side.
For one reason and another and another – my cholesterol, my reflection in the bathroom mirror, my burgundy velvet dress that no longer zips up – I have started walking everyday, what seem to me like long distances. Today I thought, when I was done, that from now on I would walk for someone other than myself. That I would dedicate each day’s walk to a person somewhere in the world who was sick, or hungry, or sad, or lonely. I could walk for entire countries. For war-mauled Iraqis, for the citizens in darkness in North Korea, for the starving children of India, for those left in the rubble that is Haiti . The sick parts of the world, and all the sad people in it, are more numerous by far than I have walks, or even steps left in me. But if Werner Herzog is right, and we all walked a little for someone else, maybe we could heal the world.
I am not given to sentimentality, or any kind of spirituality – I just cannot help but feel there is a kind of no-nonsense practicality in this idea. Tomorrow’s walk has a purpose. And at the end of all my walking, even if I heal no one else, I will be a healthy corpse.
Tags: Cholesterol, walking, Werner Herzog
I remember that story. and I remember Aai wanting to walk. and I remember thinking it was a really cool thing. and I remember wishing that that was all it would take to heal someone, to help someone.
I think it does heal and help – taking a walk always clears my head and sometimes puts things in perspective, and, now that I don’t smoke, it is definitely way healthier =) and walking around with people instead of traveling in our tin cans is good for the soul – reminds us of the people in the world, keeps us connected.
as Johnny Walker (or at least the ad) says, Keep Walking.
If he were still alive, Anthony de Mello would ask, “What is more practical and no-nonsense than spirituality?”
I would give almost anything to “remember” these things about Aai. Especially today. If it weren’t for my babies needing me here, I would have walked with you to be by her side…
An interesting and strange thought. I wish the ills of people could be really healed by all of us walking, very unusual but that is how imaginative poets and writers are.That includes you,my dear.
Just found out about this blog from Amazon while I was looking for POL(after reading a big long review and the discussions about it on http://maayboli.com/node/15805). Can’t wait to get my hands on the book. I have read and loved the books your Aai wrote. I wont say I am a propeller but a pankhi most definitely
About the walk healing people, I guess it’s the thought and the intention that counts.
Dhanashri, I hope you enjoy the book. I would be thrilled if you wrote a review on Amazon after you do – and the more honest, the better – meaning, if you hate it, please say so! I am also very interested to hear from someone who has read my Aai’s books – so far no one has compared us as writers. I do know that she was very different from me, as a person, and also as a writer – but still, I’d be curious to know. And also, thanks for this link, I will read this review as soon as I am done with my day’s work… I hope I can get some air from my mother’s pankhi!