ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Available for over a year

This weekend we are midway through the Season of Creation, a month-long celebration of the planet marked by many Christians concerned about the ecological crises of our age. One simple idea that some people have embraced is to stop driving to church. Instead they leave the car at home and walk. But will people really walk, especially if they are on their own? In California, home to many an experimental idea, the latest new trend is to hire what’s called a people walker. According to a national newspaper, Chuck McCarthy has become not a dog walker in Los Angeles, but a people walker. He offered himself as a walking companion for city strolls to boost his income and found a huge appetite for accompanied walking. You might think LA’s heavy traffic makes it unfriendly to pedestrians but Chuck McCarthy has found plenty of other reasons why hiring a people walker is taking off in Los Angeles and other cities too. Apparently many people don’t go out for a stroll because they don’t like being alone. Some fear becoming a victim of crime, especially at night. But something else appears to be happening in contemporary society. Chuck McCarthy has discovered that some people don’t know how to interact with others because they spend so much time on phones and computers that don’t have friends to walk with. Then they get so used to the constant hum of app and web-based noise that they avoid switching it off to be truly alone. Once being alone would have been seen as enriching, to be experienced without regret or sadness. Romantic poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge perceived solitude, not as loneliness, but as a time for engaging with nature and with one’s thoughts. And psychologists have noticed how helpful solitude is for mental well-being. Christianity has long recognised the merits of solitude through its use of retreats. Although they can be taken with others, most retreats are for an individual alone. As the word suggests, a retreat is a prayerful withdrawing from the world, a time to step back and reflect with God, usually in silence. While most retreats last just a few days, the Jesuit order follows what are called the Spiritual Exercises of four weeks meditating on Christ’s life. Christ himself spent 40 days in the desert in solitude, where, Luke’s Gospel tells us, he was tempted by the devil. Perhaps this strikes a chord with those who fear solitude, thinking it will mean wrestling with their own demons. But as Christ’s days in the wilderness and other retreats show, time alone can be a source of strength, growth and peace – even if it’s just half an hour in a city street.