Walk This Way

It’s all in the words.  Which ones we choose to use in order to convey a thought.  Or paint a picture.  The attractive young lady says, “Walk this way” and then swishes off down the hall.  What makes it funny is how the Three Stooges respond literally by following behind, swishing away.  She could have said, “follow me” and there would be no humor there.  All in the words.

So it is that “walk this way” takes on a special meaning for me.  Sure, I was in college when Aerosmith and Steven Tyler sang it: Walk this way!  But that’s not it.  At that same time in my life someone described to me how I walked.  I had never thought of it before.  I wasn’t doing anything new or different.  And I’ve never intentionally changed it.  It’s just how I roll.  What the woman told me was, “you don’t walk, you float.”

A kind of animal grace I guess.  Slow and smooth.  Weightless.  People complain that I sneak up on them.  I just walk softly.  A pet peeve of mine- people who clomp when they walk.  Especially on the stairs.  They clomp up and down the stairs.  I ascend and descend.  Effortlessly.  But that’s just me.

The thing is, I don’t do that so much anymore.  I still kinda float, but I’m not silent anymore.  I don’t do any kind of distance well.  And I will unintentionally let everyone know by moaning and groaning, letting out a few cuss words under my breath, and by the little bit of a clip clop from a limp.

I’ve had two back surgeries to relieve a number of conditions that all ganged up on me to make it damn near impossible to stand let alone walk.  In that regard, I’m much improved.  But as with many fixes, other things break when tweaked.  I now have constant pain in my back, walk    v e r y   s l o w l y,   and make those funny sounds.  Early in the day I can still sneak up on you though.

I don’t want to walk this way.  And I would never encourage anyone else to “walk this way. “ I just tell them, “Follow me please.”

That’s part of my story.  What’s yours?  http://www.personalhistorywriter.com