HEALTH ISSUE | APRIL 2021
Walk 16: Sam, the Buddhist Excerpt from Walks with Sam: A Man, a Dog, and a Season of Awakening by David W. Berner
Excerpts
This is the second time I’ve seen this couple. The first was from my window at the dinner table the other night. Now, it is Sam and me who see them on a sunny Sunday, and we are nearly crossing their path.
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“It’s strange,” I whisper to Sam. Our hike around the neighborhood this late morning has been peaceful and quiet, the kind of walk where you are keenly aware of your strides, your easy pace. But now Sam is out of rhythm as she pauses to watch this couple, this peculiar pair, walking in some offbeat ritual of obedience.
It is an odd thing, a woman and a man walking, not side-by-side, but apart, together but separately. He is in front, marching at a particular pace. And she, ten steps behind, hunched and scuttling, as if trying to catch up yet purposely keeping a distance. Are they together or apart?
Maybe I am being judgmental. What do I know of them? Maybe he is simply a faster walker. Maybe he takes longer strides. Maybe her legs are short. Maybe she has a bad knee. Maybe he was once a daily jogger, a track star in his younger days, and can’t help himself. “They’re like Mormons,” I whisper to Sam as the couple takes the crosswalk at the corner. That’s likely not a proper comparison. I’m simply thinking about cultures where men take a superior role,
