Remember a time when walking was just about putting one foot in front of the other?
Remember the smile on a parents face, when the crawling gave way to walking?
Remember the times you fell, and then got back up again?
Remember a time when walking was something everyone did? And didn’t belong to one community or the other?
When did it change?
When did walking start putting on gloves and collarettes and marching to tunes?
When did walking start to offend?
When did walking get labelled contentious, and need resolved?
When did walking become seen as invading other peoples space?
When did walking become sectarian? And seen as one groups Christian right?
When did walkers begin to be greeted with protests?
When did walkers start requiring police escorts?
When did walkers first meet stone throwers and petrol bombs?
Surely we all walk .....
Surely we all walk past each other everyday,
Look at our toe-paths, shopping centers, streets, villages and towns what do you see? Nothing more than people walking past each other 365 days of the year.
Remember that story in the bible about walking?
The one with the injured man lying at the side of the road?
There were plenty of people walking by that day - and no one wanted to stop
Perhaps they were walking their traditional route and weren't going to be rerouted because of a corpse
Perhaps they couldn’t see their neighbors need because he wasn’t one of them
‘Go walking, thats what to do’ or so the television jingle used to tell us
Go walking together
Go walking new routes of peace
Go walking without the baggage
Go walking to a new united tune
Go walking into a new chapter of our nations history
Remember when walking was just about putting one foot in front of the other?
