Lessons in Walking

I work in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Often during lunch I like to take long walks usually 3 or 4 miles. I do it for my health, mostly, but also I do it for life lessons. There are a few places to walk where everyone is wearing business suits and smiling, lots of Starbucks and clean little eateries, there are also some small parks or “decent” neighborhoods. I occasionally walk there, but typically I choose to walk down Broadway, Main or Los Angeles St.

For those of you unfamiliar with downtown Los Angeles, this is where immigrants set up shop, where the poor sell fruit and tacos from ice chests. This is where people who have $20 set aside for Christmas come and buy their children toys. This is where you can buy a bag of bruised fruit for a dollar or two. This is also a place where people sleep on sidewalks, where people talk to themselves and preachers yell from street corners of the coming apocalypse. As I walk, I must move out of the way of people who seem to have no place to go and yet are in a hurry to get there. Store owners offer me cheap rubber band like bracelets if I will enter their store. Other tell me I need a suit and they have just the one that I require. If I need a sweater vest it can be had for as little as 99 cents yet if I fancy some roasted corn I’ll need $1.50.

My eyes are filled with sights. I see mothers pushing strollers filled with children and fruit, old ladies with clothes they’ve had for at least 30 years. I see struggles and hardship. I see people who seem to have very little being lured by merchants wanting to take the little they do have. I see trash that has become part of the landscape and I smell urine. I see drunkards asleep right on the sidewalk as people maneuver around them without a concern. I see police walking and driving, knowing that they can only do so much or worse yet, immune and indifferent from years of conditioning.

I love walking in this area. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t do it for entertainment as this is not at all entertaining. It is sad, it is painful, and it is sometimes hard to watch. But I do see life through my walks. It gives me perspective, it give me gratitude for my home, for my family and even for the simple things like my socks. It causes me to think about life’s choices, about parents choices, about children born in broken homes. It also teaches me about being judgmental and pious making me realize that “there but by the grace of God, go I”.