What a treat to have a walking companion. Steve Taylor is the first person to walk away from the complex busy modern world and lose himself on the Kidnapped Trail with me.
He has taught me a lot about the therapeutic nature of walking. At this stage in the book, David and Alan are walking in the rain feuding about the money lost whilst playing cards in Cluny’s Cage. No cards for us, no money lost and no feuding. Just a peaceful, dry and thought-provoking saunter from Loch Errocht to Loch Rannoch.
It’s obvious, I suppose, that David is making a journey from boy to man in this book, but the during that journey he has lots of time to think deeply about what it is he’s losing, what he’s gaining and who will be the people to trust as he moves forward into and through the grown-up world of politics, money and war.
Will it drive him mad this peripatetic perilous adventure (as Giles suggests that I too may be losing my marbles) or will it be a giant step for manhood (to misquote Nick’s moon landing analogy)?
Yes, I see that this mission of mine has elements of madness. But as Steve has taught me, there is something very healing and therapeutic about long walks. I feel strongly I am going to come back a better man from this trip, just as the reading of a great book is seen to be ‘improving’. Has that happened to you?
Has a walk or a book (or both) changed the way you think about yourself? I’d love to know.
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