Privilege Blog

Rapture Of Walking Without Music


Today I went for another walk in my neighborhood. I carried a new iPhone, since it’s now my only telephone and I like to call Belgium when I walk. It occurred to me that my software-writing buddies had encouraged me to put all my iTunes music on my iPhone. I could, if I wanted, listen to music. So I gave it a try.

Disaster. I cannot walk and listen to songs at the same time. When I walk, I look. I look and think. Like reading a book, only I’m reading my surroundings line by line. When Elvis Costello started singing Alison I stopped dead on the suburban sidewalk and couldn’t take another step. This was not productive. I turned off the music.

I am prone to sensory overload. To raptures. This might have been a clue early in life only I was probably too enraptured to notice.

15 Responses

  1. so throwing gum in the mix would really mess you up huh? Oh wait…High Wasp's probably don't chew gum! LOL!

  2. Oh, see here now – you've got me breaking all sorts of commandments because I covet your iPhone.

    Walking and listening to music is okay for me; I have an entire playlist on my iPod just for that (of course, when I force myself to really walk, not stroll, it's on the treadmill) – but, yeah, Sharpiegirl, the whole gum thing, uh, no. I'm the kind of person who trips over flat surfaces.

  3. Timely…I tried to buy two iPhones today online, but they wouldn't let me. I have to go into the store…the horrors!! I can't listen to books on tape. My thoughts override the narrative. It's probably safer to walk without music anyway. Your more aware of your surroundings.

  4. raptures, yes. there was a time when i spent 4 hours communting per day, and listened to music for much of it. i often found myself wiping away tears, or sasha-fiercing down the steps at train stations. honestly, there are small children with more self possession than me.

  5. Same reason I would never get a car with a TV so kids could watch movies on long car rides; the mind was made to wander…

  6. Yes, I like having a mind that wanders. Provoking raptures. Don't worry, buying an iPhone in a store is really OK. The people there are so excited to be working in the Apple store that it's kind of fun. But I have to ask why 2 iPhones? I will let you know if it's worth coveting. For software people, I think it has extra added benefits that the rest of us don't get.

  7. That is very funny, I can't walk anywhere without music. With my ipod I can walk miles and miles, if the ipod is dead, I will whine if I need to walk down the block to get milk.

  8. LPC, was so happy to get to see Elvis Costello at Summerfest the other night.

    I don't listen to music when I walk. (Used to be sort of running, but I hate running so why do it?) I get really bored with it. I also get bored with nothing, especially because I hate exercising.

    Now I download the local talk shows to my mp3 player and listen to them while I walk and while I am at my aerobics class. I hate the music they play at class and listening to the host discuss local politics gets my heart rate up almost as much as the exercise does.

  9. My husband and I both want one. I've already bought a chinoiserie "skin" for the phone I do not have…yet.

  10. I too have an iPhone. Great device. But I usually leave it somewhere so it's not handy. My friends hate it. "Why don't you answer your phone? Why don't you return my text"…

    …it's on purpose. There are times when it's best to just 'enjoy'.

    Sans communication. or music. or e-mail. or texts.

    Walk sista, walk…in rapture!

  11. "Why don't you answer your phone? Why don't you return my text"…

    Because the phone is for my convenience, not that of my callers.

  12. I like walking and running outdoors without music, but I can't stand treadmill runs without a TV or radio on.

  13. Tomorrow we are supposed to pick up our new iPhone at the Apple store, the decision primarily driven by the fact we are a mac office and it is much easier to retrieve all the .mac email on the iPhone as opposed to TSU's smart LG-something phone.

    But we have also learned to use the iPod TSU bought us as a surprise, and quite enjoy it when doing the often-tedious exercise thing. It has everything from Grieg to U2, but *only* fast-paced music works when working out, the Samuel Barber…? Not so much.

    Electronics at this age Miss LPC, who'd a thunk?
    tp

  14. Who'd a thunk indeed. I am still figuring my new iPhone out. But that's how we keep our brains knowing the difference between a clown suit and our usual clothes, something my grandmother at one point sort of forgot.

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