Many of us take for granted that we can just hop in the car and go get anything we pretty much want. From electronics to food, for must of us, every possible distraction is just a few minutes away.
Now that the price of gas has skyrocketed, I think it’s time to review the age-old pastime of walking. I’ll give you an example from our own life.
Last night we decided to walk to Walgreens to pick up some…personal items, shall we say.
So we decide to make an evening out of it. First, I walked with my son and wife to Dairy Queen for some cold, smooth ice cream, where we had a nice chat about something that I can’t remember and then we walked from Dairy Queen to Walgreens for the other stuff. Then we walked back, weaving through rush hour traffic, and ended the night by looking up through the telescope to watch the moon.
What made this little adventure so nice was that it was no adventure at all. Here we were, doing the most mundane of things, like eating ice cream and picking up toilet paper (yes, toilet paper, now you have it), and it was some of the best family bonding time we’ve had in a while. Why?
1. We spent over an hour together without a single electronic gadget. When was the last time the average family could say that?
2. Our conversations were about nothing significant. We reviewed our vacation and played walking games (like “red light, green light”). We sang songs from our son’s favorite TV show, The Backyardigans. We tested his reading ability by picking out words on signs. We talked about cars. Families need lots of insignificant talk, not just morsels of meaningful dialogue. When it comes to family, quantity is better.
3. We sweated together. That may sound gross, but families who toil together (though a walk can hardly be considered work) stay together. That’s my theory. Our walk was a shared experience. Each of had to look out for cars, we had to tell each other when it was safe to cross. We all saw the same ducks swimming across the canal. There’s a certain simple beauty in walking up to your doorstep and seeing the same sweaty face on that of your family’s.
If we were to write a movie in the fashion of Indiana Jones (the old ones, at least) about our family adventures, they would have titles like “The Plumey Family and the Curse of the Broken Walk Signal” or “The Plumey Family: Raiders of the Dairy Queen Bathroom”.
Don’t pass up the simple pleasure of spending what may seem to be meaningless time with your family. No matter what age your kids or your parents, these mundane adventures will be lasting memories in your family for years to come and you will be drawn closer in ways you never expected.
