Walking slow

Walking slow

I had a tete-e-tete with my sister via text today. We were swapping thoughts about the Melbourne Cup, the lose of one horse and injury of another. I shared with her a quote from Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.

I thought I would share the passage here because it is fitting for the slow lane life I have started living more and more. Maybe it will resonate with you too.
“If I tried to ride that donkey it would stop and I'd never get there at all,” Po said. “Besides, I don't ride animals.”
“Why not?” Pea asked, amazed.
“It's not civilised,” the old man said. “We're animals too. How would you like it if somebody rode you?”
Such a question was too much for Pea. He didn't consider himself an animal, and in his whole life had never given one minute's thought to the possibility of being ridden.
“You mean you just walk everywhere?” Newt asked. The notion of a man who didn't ride horses was almost too strange to be believed. It was particularly strange that such a man was coming to cook for a crew of cowboys, some of whom hated to dismount even to eat.
Po Campo smiled. “It's good country to walk in,” he said.
“We got to hurry,” Pea said, a little alarmed to be having such a conversation.
“Get down and walk with me, young man,” Po Campo said. “We might see some interesting things if we keep our eyes open. You can help me gather breakfast.”
[…]
“I like to walk slow,” Po Campo said. “If I walk too fast I might miss something.”
“There ain't much to miss around here,” Newt said. “Just grass.”
“But grass is interesting,” the old man said. “It's like my serape, only it's the earth it covers. It covers everything and one day it will cover me.”

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