Small praise for pedestrian and mental vagrancy

We are told very often that we need to be physically active, for example walking (at least 30 minutes a day) but no one ever uses the term “wanderer”. It is perceived as pejorative. Moreover, the results of queries on different search engines associate it with other terms such as “mad”, “miserable”… This does not encourage interest.

Yet it’s one of my major flaws — in today’s society — and I must not allow an unexplored path, a welcoming riverside, an abandoned and mysterious door to linger in my visual space. This morning I just dropped my car off at the garage for a roadworthiness test and I faced two possibilities: either sit in the waiting room or drive 100m to reach a small path along a river and meadows. Anyway, wandering. I remember full days wandering in the countryside or in cities like Brussels or Paris. No specific purpose. I remember congresses, meetings, salons where most of people rushed to the coffee machine while I plunged into the shallows that surrounded the premises (in suits and ties, it should be noted :-) ).

Wandering means going out of the frame, sometimes approaching places with little traffic, confronting spaces where pedestrians have no place, or even where marginal populations have been relegated.

Dangerous? In more than 20 years of vagrancy, I have never been worried, and if so it was only a trick of my imagination. All you have to do is to take a few precautions: look where you are crossing, take your time, don’t go into a building that seems to be in a too bad state, be open and friendly.

The danger is not there, but in the eyes of others who most often consider these walks as eccentricities. I remember a return from a meeting (when I was still an employee) where everyone rushed into their car while your servant was walking about two miles. This led to a total misunderstanding and some admonitions.

In our society, it’s a question of running, of optimizing one’s time. If you have time to waste, you should hand it over. Even if you only use it for a hobby, it makes you look important. It’s more rewarding than wandering randomly, walking. It seems in the social hierarchy that walking is good for others, those who have no ambition.

However, I am not saying that we are not allowed to walk. But in society, there are well-defined times for this. Apparently there is a law that says “you will only go for a walk during the holidays or weekends”. Weekdays are taboo because we work. If you break this rule, you’re considered a lazy person.

In short, let’s optimize our time. But is it really effective?

On these two miles on foot — a leisure activity according to my hierarchy at the time — I had plenty of time to think about the comments exchanged during the meeting. My brain was free to think, analyze and build a project. At the end of my walk, everything was tied up in my head and all I had to do was to use my keyboard, my digital pen, to share my vision with my colleagues. Curiously, the fact that my proposal was one week earlier than the others’ was not considered. I had wandered… I was guilty and I stayed guilty.

Sometimes in my work, people are surprised that I let children play in the workshop? “What? What? They don’t do the activity. Do they play?”

Indeed, either they need a little mental vagrancy, or it is a reward for completing the work required, or finally the game is part of the experience and is associated with a challenge.

I apply the same philosophy as for pedestrian vagrancy. It is not the ability to sit in front of a desk that will save anyone; it is curiosity, the ability to use one’s skills, to mix them up, to extract all the small details necessary for the project to build a new knowledge.

Children need it as much as adults.

Recently I was playing Contra, an old video game that rocked my youth. I played it so much and more on Amstrad CPC. Anyone who sees me playing could think that I’m not working, that I’m having fun. If they were asked if they wanted to hire me, I think the answer would be “no”. Society needs people it believes productive, not strollers like me. In school, in my youth, I would have paid myself a remark or even a fine punishment. Except that I was stuck at that very moment, stuck on a piece of code and a way to present things in an email. Stuck on a term that didn’t come up. So I did as I have always done: I let my mind wander. Fifteen minutes later, the solution was obvious. If I had stayed in front of my code or this email, nothing would have come. And yet this is often what is imposed. The “cigarette and coffee” break is accepted at work. However, try to take a break from “video games” or “walks”. We all know what happy words you will be given.

However, aim for efficiency. In education, children need to be stimulated, to breathe. So it doesn’t matter if they look like they’re doing nothing. If you have put them on track, if you help them manage these breaks to become creative and productive moments, it will only be beneficial.

Try it for yourself. Where to find the time? I can’t find it, I’ll take it or rather I’ll insert it. Explore your surroundings. Just never forget to carry a notebook and pencil (or a note-taking application). Never forget…

(This article was written on mobile in 10 minutes in front of a river, a weeping willow, 3 ducks and 2 water hens. Reviewed, validated and posted with 5 minutes of Castlevania in between.)

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