On the Enhancement of Cognitive Aptitude by Decreasing Velocity

I went for a walk recently. I was anxious over my imminent mission call. The time had come for bed, but I was not particularly interested in attempting to stop my runaway freight train of thought, which I supposed might lead to injury. So, I figured I’d walk until the train ran out of fuel (as they inevitably do). When I was younger, my family lived in Orem, and I had a vague idea of where the old house might be in relation to BYU. Thus it happened that, at 11:00 p.m., I set off down University Parkway in search of my childhood home.

To make a long story short, I found it and was in bed by 2:30 in the morning. What I learned was interesting. Previously, the territory I covered had been unfamiliar. I recognized a few landmarks (like the University Mall and Scera Park), but for most of the time, I was feeling my way around based on a general sense of direction. That struck me as odd, because I had certainly covered the ground before, many times—then the reason occurred to me. Prior to my midnight perambulations, I had only covered that distance by car at speeds no less than 25 miles per hour. Now, I could describe most of the way to you in detail, and would certainly recognize it if I saw it, and all it took was one walk.

I guess the human mind (at least mine) doesn’t process very well at 25 miles per hour or more. I also noticed that I never really felt lost as I walked, even though I didn’t know exactly where I was going. On the other hand, I am easily lost when going somewhere unfamiliar in a car.

Needless to say, I felt much better after my walk. I might paraphrase Henry David Thoreau’s, “Simplify. Simplify,” by saying that it’s nice to slow down to walking speed every once in a while. It seems as though life only accelerates, so I when I get the chance to walk, I take it.