Wanderings

Since Covid, I have found myself walking more deliberately. Planning interesting ways to get to somewhere which might be quite mundane. The place might not be significant, but the route might spring a surprise.

This has led to more designed walks, projects in themselves. They aren’t intended to be grandiose, but they might make a walk meaningful. I suppose they’re linked to Promenade Theatre - you meet up, share the intention, set off and stop somewhere. There something happens - someone shares a fact, or a story, or a memory. Then on we go.

I include three here (partly in the hope you might be inspired to design your own wandering).

The first, The Remarkings, was made to mark my leaving the London Bubble.

The second, The Returning, was a walk created for old school friends, to beat the bounds of lost teenage years.

The third, The Remembering, was created as a memorial for my friend and collaborator Andy Whitfield.

But first some Vonnegut…

Kurt Vonnegut tells his wife he's going out to buy an envelope:

“Oh, she says, well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And see some great looking babies. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And I'll ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know. The moral of the story is - we're here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And what the computer people don't realize, or they don't care, is we're dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And it's like we're not supposed to dance at all anymore.”

Let's all get up and move around a bit right now...

or at least dance.