Saturday, July 2, 2022

if I gave a TED Talk ...



... it would start in an auditorium.

Of course it would.  And you are there, sitting in the audience, right?

But the whole point of the talk is to get you out of your seat and out into nature ... walking!

Below is a written version of the message--not a transcript but the script, or the intended outline:

* * *

Good morning, folks.  I'm the Hiking Hermit and I'm here to talk about walking.

There is NOTHING ... NOTHING!!! ...more natural to us than walking.

We exist as a species because we walk, and walk well ...

LONG, HARD, All-day Hunter-Gatherer walks.

We got smart because we walked out of the jungle on two feet.

That freed our hands to use tools.

Learning to use tools expanded our brains; and we found we could make better and better tools.

Ever-more-clever tools to do our walking for us.  To do our thinking for us.

And what happened?  (This ought to come as no surprise.)

WE GOT STUPID !!!!!

Our tools have taken over our lives.

We have become slaves ... chained to our tools, captive inside the artificial spaces we built for our comfort.  They've become voluntary jail cells, keeping us away from our true nature.

Look around you at this moment.  At least 90 percent of what we see and experience, at least 90 percent of the time, are our own tools.

They've swallowed us up!  We're drowning in them!  GASPING for air!

Our tools are destroying the world!

STUPID!!!!!!!

How on Earth did we fall into this trap?  How did we let ourselves get so stupid?

The answer is simple.  We got away from our true nature.

Our true nature IS nature itself.  We are good solid products of the natural world, crafted through Billions of years of trial and error.  We're made of good stuff.  But we're denying it.

And as I said at the start.  Our TRUE NATURE is walking.  Walking is the root characteristic that defines our species.

So the best way out of our trap -- the best way to SAVE THE WORLD -- is to GET UP, walk out of your artificial space, walk away from the Tool Monsters, and return to the lifestyle that makes walking the most important part of every day: as Thoreau put it, "The enterprise and Adventure of the day."

The GOOD NEWS is that the solution is EASY.  It's the most NATURAL thing we could do.

Because there is NOTHING ... NOTHING!!! ... that can transform your life more quickly and easily (and at practically no cost--no equipment to buy) than WALKING.

So for God's sake ... for your own sake! ... get up!  Get out of your chair and come along with me.

We're going on a REAL adventure.