I'm just walkin'

Crop dusting. Photo: Matt Green, flickr

Matt Green's walk across the country from Far Rockaway in NYC to Rockaway Beach in Oregon ended on August 25, and here is how he sums up what he learned. I thought it worth repeating:

1) Have some faith in this world. Things aren’t as bad as they tell us. We may all have different political opinions and different religious beliefs and different cultural norms (I’m a liberal atheist Jew. Did you know that? Does it matter?), and many of us probably couldn’t stand to be around each other on a regular basis, but most of us would, as it turns out, extend a helping hand to a stranger in need. I walked 3100 miles across this country and didn’t encounter a single person who tried to hurt me, or steal from me, or damage my possessions. Maybe this isn’t a place that needs to be feared. Maybe it’s a place that needs to be explored, and appreciated, and celebrated.

Matt Green. Photographer: jasoneppink, flickr

2) There’s beauty everywhere. Keep your eyes open, and keep your mind open, and you’ll be amazed what’s out there, right under your nose, just waiting to be discovered. You don’t need to go to the Best This or the Most Spectacular That; just take a stroll around the neighborhood. I blindly followed directions from Google on my walk, making no effort to see anything special, and look at everything I found that I thought needed to be shared with the world!

Follow the link to my previous post about the reason behind Matt's I'm Just Walkin', with a wonderful Steinbeck quotation.