1 Down…

24 to go.  Or that’s what I’ve been thinking lately, anyway.  I was wearing Peace Pilgrim’s tunic for quite a while, and it does say, very clearly, “25,000 miles on foot for peace.”

I’m not sure how I will complete those 24,000 miles.  They may be metaphorical miles or literal miles.  I doubt I’ll ever be a peace pilgrim again, but you never know. 

While I was walking, I had so many people express a desire to get our military out of Iraq.  I had several members of our military thank me for what I was doing, including one who had just returned from Iraq.  I think about what they’ve sacrificed, and I know that it would be unconscionable and beyond selfish for me to stop working for peace now.

I’m going to spend some time thinking about how to best continue the spirit of my walk.  Maybe you’ll hear from me again publicly someday, maybe not.  But, in the words of Peace Pilgrim, I will keep at it, “until mankind has learned the way of peace.”

Advice for Future Pilgrims

Several people have spoken to me about the possibility of walking their own pilgrimage, and I expect that others with similar thoughts will find their way to this blog eventually.  I’d like to leave some small bits of advice here for anyone who may want to walk.

1) Read Peace Pilgrim’s book.  It is full of logistical information if you are looking for it.

2) Be prepared to have many friends and family, even supportive friends and family, who do not understand what you are doing. 

3) The more you indulge in fear, comfort-seeking, looking for praise or avoiding negative responses, the harder it’s gonna be.

4) You may find that the beginning of the pilgrimage is the hardest part.  This is when you will have to decide whether you’re serious about what you’ve set out to do.

5) You don’t have to do it, but shaving your head makes everything easier.  I would have been much smellier if I hadn’t!

6) Don’t pop blisters.

7) Avoid long grass when you’re in the Northeast.  It can be full of ticks carrying lyme disease (I learned this the hard way–one day in New Jersey I pulled about 20 ticks off of my clothes and body).  If you have to sleep outside, sleep off of the ground.

8) Don’t wear cotton.

Finally, I do believe an action like this can have many positive effects on the world that are measurable and practical, but if you have no motivation beyond the political, you simply will not be able to handle the challenges.

An Open Invitation

For all of the kind and generous people who offered me places to stay: I would love to see any and all of you again.  If you would ever like to visit New York City, my door is always open.  I would be honored to host you! 

1,000 Miles

The walking is done!  I can’t write much at the moment because in about ten minutes I’m headed into a college philosophy class to talk about my experiences.  When I get home in a few days I’ll be sure to post more.

Many thanks to everyone for all of your support!

York

Only 2 days to go!  Some of my most interesting experiences have been happening these last few days of the walk.  For the first weeks of the walk, it seemed that most of the people I met were women, and every woman I spoke to had a story of surviving violence.  As the walk winds down, it’s men I’ve been running into.  I’ve been having some wonderful conversations with them about the pressures they’ve felt to act “tough” and dominate.  One man described the damage this pressure has done to his spiritual and emotional growth, and his ability to be the kind of partner he’d like to be. Another told me that he believes he would never have ended up in prison had it not been for that same pressure.  And the war memorials I see in every town I pass through tell the story of the thousands of men I won’t have a chance to speak to.  The toll this takes on everyone is so tremendous. 

Unfortunately, most people I talk to defer their responsibility for addressing these issues to individual parents and their choices in childrearing.  I think this is a dangerous response to a problem that is obviously collective, and requires a range of institutional changes extending far beyond the behavior of individual families.  The good news though is that most people I speak to, male and female, do want the situation to change.

Exton

Tonight I’m staying with some people who traveled with The Equality Ride, a group that travels around the U.S. speaking to students and meeting with administrators at Christian colleges and universities with policies that discriminate against LGBTQ people “to encourage compassion, inclusion and loving acceptance, values upon which Christianity is founded.”

Right on.

It looks like I have about a week left to go… I’ll have more time then to post lots of final thoughts!

Lansdale, PA

Pennsylvania is so beautiful!  And the people here have a little bit of the Southern friendliness, so I’m having lots of good conversations while I walk.  Today I had three people stop me to tell me that there would always be evil in the world.  I wonder who they were trying to convince–me or themselves…  Apathy would be more justifiable if our actions couldn’t make a difference.  Anyhow, I don’t think it matters too much whether there will always be ‘evil.’  The answer to that philosophical question has no bearing on our responsibility to do what we feel is right.  We don’t decide not to lead good lives just because we can’t be ‘perfect,’ so why should we avoid social action because we can’t create a world with no tragedy? 

Stockton

Well, I hit the 3/4 mark today!  A couple of quick updates…  First, based on several factors I’ve changed course and decided on a final destination of Gettysburg, PA.  I expect to get to the end of the walk on August 6th if all goes according to plan, which it rarely does. 

Second, my original phone pooped out on me and lost all contact information for some of the people I’ve stayed with so far.  I have some people’s info on paper or email, but I have lost quite a few numbers.  So if you’re reading this and you want me to have your number, send it along by email or give me a call.  And I’ll make a special request to Liz from Northampton, MA–I lost your number and I don’t think I’ll be able to track it down unless you send it!

Namecalling

Lately I’ve been taking a very roundabout route through the ‘burbs of New Jersey.  Last night a sweet man who also happened to be the owner of a restaurant called The Quiet Man in Dover, NJ gave me a delicious dinner.  If you’re ever in Dover, stop by The Quiet Man for some excellent food!

By far the vast majority of people have been wonderful and positive in dealing with me, but lately I have had a couple of hostile reactions.  Last night a man saw my shirt and yelled “raghead!” from his truck, and recently someone posting on a forum discussing my blog offered his one word analysis of my walk: “Feminazi.”

I obviously don’t agree with these guys, but I think it is very useful to try to figure out where they’re coming from and what their comments say about our society. 

I’ll start with the “feminazi” comment.  I think that this word indicates a lot of fear on the part of the men who use it.  It sounds like they’re afraid that changes to gender roles would mean forcefully taking something away from them.  In the past I’ve done a lot of anti-violence education with groups of men, and I’m always amazed when they see a challenge to traditional gender roles as something that is threatening to them, rather than something that could offer them more freedom.  But it is a common reaction, and I think this is because our society does such a good job of convincing men and boys that the privilege they enjoy is worth more than the freedom they would gain if they weren’t forced to act “like men.”  In other words, the higher position in society is held out as a carrot, so most men never consider how big a role the stick plays in keeping them in line and making sure they conform, or what they lose when the women in their lives experience violence.

For the record, I think that the changes I’m talking about would give men a far better quality of life, and far more freedom.  I’m not interested in taking anything from men.  I’m interested in helping them (and women too).

Now, on to the “raghead” thing.  Unfortunately, I think this is a symptom of the strong anti-arab sentiment in America, and a tendency to lump everyone living in the Middle East into a single category.  This is an extremely dangerous way of looking at the world.  It makes it far too easy to manipulate Americans into supporting military action against any country with a large Muslim or Arab population.  If everyone in the region is a “raghead,” and therefore a terrorist, Iraq and Iran (and lots of other countries) are appropriate military targets even if they haven’t attacked us.  And it even makes sense to, in the words of one guy I talked to just as I was leaving for my walk, “Nuke the whole place”  (When asked which place he was referring to, he responded, “the whole area”).

I think it’s important not to get caught up in an angry reaction to these comments–that will only make it harder to understand them.  These people are responding out of fear, and we all do that sometimes.  Much better to try to understand and address their fears than it would be to respond by calling them names right back.

And finally, I think it’s important to understand the minority that thinks this way, but also to remember that the vast majority of people have responded with support, kindness and generosity.

Jersey City

After a trip through Queens and out to Long Island, where I met a very gifted massage therapist/healer who was nice enough to give me a massage, I’m moving on out through New Jersey.  I highly recommend the walk over the George Washington Bridge–what a view! 

I’m at mile 611 now, and the walk is starting to get more challenging.  But the people in Jersey City are super supportive and lots of fun to talk to, so they gave me a boost.

Look for an article on the walk in the Oyster Bay Guardian…