Walking, and Hoping

I HAVE A FANTASY about being homeless, on the road, always moving around, mostly on foot. My homelessness is voluntary, and includes a backpack, sleeping bag, tent, debit card, thermal underwear, and, hell, maybe even an I phone. But let's not get too materialistic here.

But why not? I mean, why suffer, right? There is no law which says that a grand adventure must include suffering. the purpose would be gaining experiences, meetign people, seeing a lot of different places, taking notes, writing a journal, sort of an on the road reportage.

Most of the time I'd travel by walking and sleep in my tent, but, now and then, from time to time, i might sleep in a motel, or somebody's home, or accept a ride somewhere. But i would definitely approach people and talk to them, and tell them what my project is. Voluntary, well planned, research oriented homelessness and travel. What an experience.

I had never heard of mildred norman until quite recently, and i suggest googling her, wikipedia-ing her. What a fascinating lady. She spent the last twenty eight years of her life walking back and forth across the united states, and did so several times, between 1953 and 1981.

The only difference is, she didn't have any of that stuff with her, any backpack, all those years. just the clothes on her back. She relied on people to help her; either womebody fed and sheltered her, or she went homeless and hungry. But she kept walking, for all those years, and evidently never did without. She always managed to have help.

mildred started callign herself "peace pligrim", and always wore a T shirt with those words on it, esplaining that she would keep walking until humanity found the path to peace. She would doubtless still be waling today, at the age of one hundred and five, had she not been killed in a car accident in 1981, ironically. Thousands of miles of walking down streets, all across the country, and killed while riding in a car.

Did she ever wonder if all her walking was actually doing anything at all to help the cause of peace? Did she hope to attract attention to herself, and thus to her cause? She wrote a book, and there is an organization devoted to her memory, and cause.

In 2009 a young athletic black man tried the same thing, and managed to walk across the small state of delaware, before almost freeezing to death and starving. He was an indealistic writer, wanting to emulate the peace pilgrim. But he lasted only a few hundred miles, and a few weeks, then gave up.

A big difference is that the lady was a harmless looking older lady walking in the nineteen fifties, sixties, and seventies, and he was a big black man walking in 2009. mildred norman probably had a lot more success getting people to feed and house her overnight, in a more trusting, less violent, less security conscious era.

Einstein was once asked if there would always be war, of if humanity would eliminate the scourge. The Professor replied that as long as there are people, there will be war.There will probably be war a lot longer than there will be peace pilgrims. But who knows? We can always keep walking, and hoping.