Against the Flow

Mall walking revisited.

If you are like me, you may be looking for ways to get more exercise in the coming year, especially during the winter months. And if you are like me, you live in a cold climate that is not conducive to outside activities, unless you are young and athletic.

Lately, the weather here has been fine, and I have no excuse for not walking outside. However, the winter habit of going to the mall to walk persists.

In previous years, I walked outside until the ice and snow made it too dangerous. I had a friend, an avid outdoor walker, who was hit and killed while walking on a street made narrow by the banks of snow plowed up along the curbs making it necessary to walk in the street. So, after that and a couple of near falls, I am content with mall walking during the winter.

Many find mall walking boring, and I’ll confess, I would much rather walk outside in a wooded area than at the mall. When I first started, I found it boring, too, but there are compensations.

As I age, I appreciate the level walking “path,” restrooms, and drinking fountains. On extremely hot and cold days, I really appreciate the temperature controlled environment. Of course, if it is raining or snowing, walking inside makes total sense. I also love the fact that it is free.

My wife appreciates the opportunity to leisurely browse the sale racks in Macy’s, Kohl’s, and Penney’s. She walked with me until her knees started complaining. Now she goes to physical therapy and leaves the walking to me.

Occasionally, I find a friend to walk with and that makes mall walking much more enjoyable. For years our friend Jim, a widower, would join us, but he passed away several years ago and I haven’t found a replacement.

As a mall walker, I’ve often pondered why almost everyone walks counterclockwise around the mall. We’ve noticed this in three states and a half-dozen cities where we’ve walked the malls. Why do we do that? I thought it might be because we drive on the right-hand side of the street, but when I asked my wife about it, she said people in Japan, where cars drive on the left, walk on the right side, too.

There seems to be an unwritten law that if one walks the mall, he or she must walk counterclockwise.

On rare occasions, we’ve met the oddball who walks clockwise.

So, the other day, I decided to be a brave non-conformist and break the law. I walked a lap clockwise. No alarms went off. The mall cops did not come to haul me away in cuffs. I don’t know that anyone even noticed me.

Walking in the opposite direction as other walkers, I not only saw the mall from a different angle, but I also saw people’s faces as we passed. I nodded, smiled, and said “Good Morning” too a few of them. It was great, and it added a whole new dimension to my experience. I appreciated seeing faces rather than backs as people passed me.

Still, I felt discomfort. I was doing something outside the norm. I was going against the flow, something I seldom do. It took me back to my non-conformist early college days. It made me feel a bit younger and more energetic.

I went to the mall this afternoon and walked clockwise again. Two laps this time. I noticed only a few mall walkers unless others have caught on and are walking against the flow, too. I doubt they paid any attention to me. If they noticed, they didn’t show it.

Some people (and I used to be one of them) think mall walking is simply too boring. I once met a retired farmer now living in a retirement community who walked a mile or two every day. He said he could never walk in a mall.

It can be boring, but I have found it conducive to meditation which I often do when I walk. Other times I tune in to a podcast or a radio station I enjoy, like our local PBS station. I get lost in my thoughts and sometimes lose track of where I am.

But now, walking against the flow, I have people to greet and new sights to see. If I want to meditate, that may be a drawback. I may have to rejoin the crowd and walk clockwise.

One thing I know, now that I’ve broken the ice, I won’t be afraid to buck the crowd, which isn’t much of a crowd these days at our local mall. I’ll probably mix it up and walk a lap one way and another lap or two the other way.

There is the danger of a head-on collision if I don’t pay attention to where I’m going when walking clockwise. A couple of times today I had to change course to avoid colliding with people. When I meditate, I am off in my own world, so I’ll have to pay more attention.

Maybe because I am doing something different in a familiar place, I notice things. For example, at one point the sun almost blinded me as it streamed in through a skylight. Walking the other way, it would have hit my back and I would not have noticed it at all.

Yeah, I know, I’m easily entertained.

I’ve heard that walking two miles can increase a person’s longevity by two years. So my goal for 2024, resolution, if you will, is to walk two miles a day three times a week. Care to join me?

Happy (mall)-walking in 2024, dear friends.