Planetwalker
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Average rating4
15
Ratings1
Average rating4
When the struggle to save oil-soaked birds and restore blackened beaches left him feeling frustrated and helpless, John Francis decided to take a more fundamental and personal stand--he stopped using all forms of motorized transportation. Soon after embarking on this quest that would span two decades and two continents, the young man took a vow of silence that endured for 17 years. It began as a silent environmental protest, but as a young African-American man, walking across the country in the early 1970s, his idea of "the environment" expanded beyond concern about pollution and loss of habitat to include how we humans treat each other and how we can better communicate and work together to benefit the earth.Through his silence and walking, he learned to listen, and along the way, earned college and graduate degrees in science and environmental studies. The United Nations appointed him goodwill ambassador to the world's grassroots communities and the U.S. government recruited him to help address the Exxon Valdez disaster.Was he crazy? How did he live and earn all those degrees without talking? An amazing human-interest story, with a vital message, Planetwalker is also a deeply personal and engaging coming-of-age odyssey--the positive experiences, the challenging times, the characters encountered, and the learning gained along the way.
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I think what sticks with me most is how Francis chose to relate his journey, what he focused on, what was mentioned briefly. So much is the story of his walk across the U.S and what the stops entailed. You don't necessarily get in depth reflections about his initial reasons for not using motorized transport or speaking, because it was the right thing for him to do at the time. And when he determined it no longer served him, that he could convey an important message in other ways, he changed his mind. A clear proponent of ‘it's the journey, not the destination', what stands out are the people he met along the way, the many small kindnesses, and how happy he was to continue his education in and work on environmental matters, as well as the many lovely moments in nature, contrasted with more capricious weather. Towards the end of the book, capping a theme throughout the book of a father who never seems to support Francis's choices, the ability to work in the development of important regulations, to actually have a job recognized as such by the older generation, seems to loose the floodgates for John to talk about other initiatives only vaguely referred to earlier, and it becomes clear how much work he has done and contributed to, in regards tovthe environmentalist movement. Inspiring and peaceful.
Considering the joy and contemplative headspace walking has provided him, I am happy to see he is currently in the process of walking through Africa.
Other observations: love the little sketches bordering the text, and little poetic couplets/haikus that were sprinkled through. Something about having/making art on the journey makes it seem less lonely, though he never sounded isolated.
Francis rarely raises the point, but the frustrations of ‘walking while Black', encountering the threat of physical violence as a result of racism is there, as is the truly ludicrous infrastructural failings that see direct transportation corridors barred from pedestrian use. If it's a safety issue, add a side walk or a lane you car-biased bastards. 😡 [Yeah, that's a little personal pedestrian rage coming out there.]
I saw a news article mentioned a new book in the works along with his Africa trip. While this book focuses on the issues that were key in its day (a lot more concerned about nuclear armaments and nuclear power than those of us born in the same year as Chernobyl and not growing up in the cold war consciousness expect there to be), I would like to see his observations/reflections in light of where the world stands now in matters of environment and peace.
