SOURCES OF WALKING

 

I bought a copy of Journey to the Source of the Nile by Christopher Ondaatje.  It was in the local charity shop, and  I bought it mostly because the index contains 60 odd references to Sir Richard Francis Burton. This is Mr Ondaatje: 

 

         He tells us, among many other things, that “the Swahili word for ‘white man’ is mzungu which comes from mzungu katimeaning ‘wandering around in circles, going nowhere.’” I think that’s worth knowing.

 

Also, if Ondaatje is to be believed (and why would you doubt him?), walking home from dinner in Zanzibar can be a scary business.  He eats at a Goan restaurant called Chit Chat which he finds to be “a fabulous treat,” … “However walking back … through the dark shadowy streets of Stone Town was far from pleasant.  As the evening darkened, the lanes of Stone Town became really claustrophobic.  Figures lurked in every archway and we were studied very closely as we walked quickly back to the safety of our small hotel.  I would certainly not have liked to make the journey across town on my own.” People said much the same to me about walking at night in Dublin.

 

Meanwhile, in tandem, I’ve been rereading Nabokov’s Lectures on Literatureand here he is writing about Joyce’s Ulysses,  “If you have ever tried to stand and bend your head so as to look back between your knees with your face turned upside down, you will see the world in a totally different light.  Try it on the beach: it is very funny to see people walking when you look at them upside down. They seem to be, with each step, disengaging their feet from the glue of gravitation without losing their dignity.  Well, this trick of changing the vista, of changing the prism and the viewpoint, can be compared to Joyce’s new literary technique.”

         Well yes, I’m sure it can, and I know that Nabokov is one of the greats, even so I never imagined he was a man who’d look back between his knees with his face turned upside down, but apparently he did, and again that seems to be something worth knowing.

         And then one day in the Times last week, under the headline “Can’t Sleep?  Don’t panic – here’s how to cope” we were told “A BMJ study showed gentle 30-minute morning walks were enough to improve memory and executive function.”

Honey, I didn’t even know I had an executive function but apparently I do, and so do most other people. A little research tells me “Executive function is a set of mental    skills. It includes working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control.”  Well OK – and this gentle 30 minute morning walk – is that a version of wandering around in circles, going nowhere?  If so, that’s OK by me.