The Plainly Stated

Plain words, written out to read

The Plainly Stated

Walks, questions and borrowed old ideas, said plainly, for anybody who is a little wild and still curious about the Way.

Start with the first walkSee all 24
An engraving of a tall, shaggy figure walking away down a worn forest path between old trees.
A path underfoot, and somebody ahead of you on it.

Season one · 24 walks

Wild Man of the Way

A man and his dog, Bo, go out walking: a ridge above a creek, a fence line, the last light of the day. Each time out there is one question. Why the smallest annoyance in a morning weighs the most. What a tree owes you. What any of it is for.

He borrows from people who thought hard about it a long time ago, Zhuangzi and Laozi, Epictetus and Seneca, Montaigne, Thoreau and Muir among them. He says where he got it, and he never claims more of an answer than he has.

We are all a bit wild. Most of us are still curious about the Way, the world, and what should be. Here is the whole season, written out to read at your own pace: nearly six hours of it, in 24 sittings.

Wild Man of the Way · Season one

The walks

  1. The wild and the Way

    First light on the ridge above the creek, half past five, and fog all the way down in the cove.

    short walk9 min read · Zhuangzi, Alan Watts

  2. Getting lost on purpose

    The sun has been off this ridge for about twenty minutes and the shadow side of the cove has gone blue.

    lesson13 min read · Zhuangzi, Galileo

  3. The bootlace

    First light on the ridge above the creek, just after six, and my boots are wet to the ankle. The light is only on the tops of the oaks.

    short walk7 min read · Zhuangzi

  4. What Galileo could not see yet

    Last hour of light, and the wind has come up and is doing something unhelpful to the creek. I’m on the ridge above the cove.

    lesson16 min read · Galileo, Kepler

  5. The tree that owes you nothing

    Light on the ridge. Not much of it. The sun hasn’t come over the far ridge yet.

    deep session27 min read · Zhuangzi, Alan Watts, Schopenhauer

  6. The ridge that is not there

    It is twenty past six. The light is on the fence line at the top of the ridge and the grass hasn’t dried.

    short walk7 min read · Alan Watts, Gilbert White

  7. Bo and the deer

    The light has gone off the ridge and the creek is the brightest thing left down there. Ten minutes after the sun left, give or take.

    short walk6 min read · Nietzsche

  8. Control, and the parts you cannot carry

    Half past four in the afternoon, and the light is already off the tops of the oaks and down in the creek.

    lesson16 min read · Epictetus, Arrian

  9. What is it for

    Last hour of light, and there is fog sitting in the bottom of the cove, up to about the height of Bo’s shoulders.

    deep session29 min read · Seneca, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche

  10. The grumpy philosopher and his poodle

    The rain stopped about twenty minutes ago and the light hasn’t come back. Everything on this ridge is still dripping.

    lesson13 min read · Schopenhauer

  11. Two words

    Last hour of light. Wind up the draw, and mud in the low place just deep enough to make every step a small decision.

    short walk8 min read · Alan Watts

  12. Tracks

    Two days of rain, and then a Thursday that nobody saw coming. I am on the trail above the seep, and the mud in the low place is still holding everything.

    short walk6 min read · John Muir

  13. The judge in the house

    A little after nine in the morning. The sun has come over the ridge behind me and put the whole cove in shade.

    lesson13 min read · Epictetus, Schopenhauer, Emerson, William James

  14. Two ways of paying attention

    Last of the light, and not much of it. Bo is a few yards ahead of me at a sycamore, with his nose down in the leaf litter, working at something I can’t see.

    deep session31 min read · Zhuangzi, Thoreau, John Muir, Gilbert White

  15. A word you keep saying

    The wind has been coming down this ridge all afternoon, and it just caught up with me. Last of the light.

    short walk6 min read · Laozi

  16. The soft wheel

    First light, and the cart is out on the lane where I left it. The squeak is gone. That’s the good part, and it took most of an afternoon to get.

    lesson16 min read · Laozi

  17. The thing in the road

    Cold for the hour, and the gravel on the county road has gone wet, and the light hasn’t come off the ridge yet, and the creek is the only thing moving down in the cove.

    short walk7 min read · No one in particular

  18. Where the creek goes

    There was rain on this cove two days ago, and I’ve never heard this creek make so much noise.

    short walk6 min read · Gilbert White

  19. The mountain you never climb

    Last hour of light, and the ridge has gone the colour of the inside of a shell. Bo is a hundred yards down the trail with his nose in something.

    lesson15 min read · Montaigne

  20. Wild

    Five in the afternoon, second week of a hot one.

    deep session30 min read · Zhuangzi, Alan Watts, Thoreau, Epictetus

  21. The fence line

    The first cold morning of the season. There is mist in the creek and it has not burned off yet.

    lesson16 min read · Epictetus, Aldo Leopold

  22. The last walk before dark

    The sun went off the far ridge about four minutes before I got to the top of the knob. I was late and I knew it.

    lesson16 min read · Galileo, Humboldt, Basho

  23. The way it goes on

    Last of the light and I cannot see Bo. The dark has come up the cove from the bottom, which is where it always starts.

    deep session32 min read · Zhuangzi, Seneca, Alan Watts

  24. The walk that is the same walk

    The light is up off the creek and everything is one colour. Six in the morning, give or take, and the fog has not decided to leave.

    short walk6 min read · Basho

Who he borrows from

Every thinker the season leans on, and the walks where they turn up.