Walking Dualities

There are two kinds of walking for me, and a lot of my life is dependent on which one I'm engrossed in at the time. The first, by any conventional means of measurement, is faster. Walking this way is walking with a purpose, driven, heading to class, walking along dark city streets to warmth, and such and such. Depending on where I am, I tend to walk as fast or faster than the people around me--however, irregardless of where I am, when I walk like this I see very little.

The second type of walking is not really walking at all, but something more akin to meandering, or wandering, and sometimes I just shuffle back and forth in the same area. I think I might look like a ghost. Speed-wise, this tends to be much slower than anyone else' pace. It's the kind of pace where you're part walking, part considering how speed itself is entirely relative, and that a rocket ship flying inches in front of your face seems to be going much faster than one flying perpendicular to you a hundred miles away. And I meander, often with music playing in my ear, and I notice people. I see the interesting things that people wear.

In this second state of walking, I tend to smile more than I like to. Smiling to strangers can do a lot of good things for you like make you seem endearing or non-threatening, but only the right type of smile, and the one I usually find myself with is not of this nature. The one I have on makes me look stupid and empty-headed. This is why I try to suppress this bastard smile. And there is nothing more silly than an empty-headed individual wandering around in a crowd trying hard not to smile.