Side Walks & Bridle Paths: A Social Commentary

The " We Need Side Walks" signs seem glaringly out of place on the perfectly landscaped lawns that butt up to the sprawling English Tudor and French castlesque homes cloistered in one of the richest cities of Tennessee and the United States--Belle Meade. Where the median income is $167,000 and the Lexus is ubiquitous, my first thoughts on seeing this flurry of signs was, "Surely Belle Meade can afford side walks; boy, this recession has really hit deep; to, what are they complaining about Percy Warner Park is two minutes away.". In my mind I formed a scathing blog of these Belle Meade elites who could all afford the time and resources to exercise in the park, in the gym, or hire a personal trainer for their home work out. I haughtily thought, "I've been walking the roads of Nashville for 32 years without side walks; get over it!"

Then, Sunday as my friends and I ran down Tyne Blvd., preparing to leap into one of those elite's bushes as the late for Church worshipers hurled towards us, I noticed the "We Need Side Walks" sign had a web site: www.sidewalksforbellemeade.org. "Now I'll see what they're whining about, wanting money for their precious side walks when the unemployment rate is 10 percent."my British Socialist roots were going full throttle.

When I went to the website I was surprised and humbled; my judgments were way off base. There is plenty of money for sidewalks, both city and Federal, but according to the website "a very vocal, but minority group fought hard to stop the plan and were successful." Now it makes sense, those few dastardly elites (who I knew must be lurking somewhere) don't want side walks. They don't want a safer, healthier, more community oriented city. They don't want to follow the Belle Meade's mission statement values of compassion, courtesy, fairness, respect, and tolerance. No, they want Belle Meade to be an enclave within Nashville, not part of Metropolitan (Metro) Nashville where the citizens enjoy the services of Metro Government. By refusing side walks to the majority of Belle Meade citizens they curtail the trickle down effect from their poorer Nashville Cousins who might want to walk on these safe meandering pathways.

This Mindset and power control leaches into the green jewel of Metro Nashville, Percy Warner Park (PWP), which is just nine miles from downtown Nashville. PWP is not part of Belle Meade, but is the largest of Metro Nashville's parks. Yet in this 2,600 plus acre park there is an extensive network of bridle paths that only horse riders may use. Many other States have turned exclusive equestrian paths into multi-use trails that incorporate horse riders, hikers, runners, and even mountain bikers. While there is a strong argument to have separate mountain bike trails from horse trails, runners, hikers and horse riders are considered compatible. Currently there are no mountain bike trails in PWP.

I grew up at the wrong end of a very class conscious society, Great Britain. However, the one thing that I was not refused was the ability to walk. Anyone who has visited Britain will know about the endless network of footpaths that wend through farmland, villages, and towns and can be enjoyed by all.

Wouldn't it be a communal achievement if we Nashvillians could expand our network of pathways, be they side walks, or multi-use bridle paths to allow all citizens to use them and become neighbors.

Full Disclosure: I'm a semi-elite who lives in Forest Hills; my husband drives a Lexus.

No Force...

The irony of my first post is that right now I'm not that enthused about being physical. Although my enthusiasm for different activity modalities changes, I'm still entranced with improving my running; maybe even running one more marathon, especially if there's a posse of girlfriends and a destination like Eugene, Oregon to bait me. However, I've been packing up my home in readiness to put my house on the market (wish me luck) and I'm flat tired. Speed training, thirty plus miles a week, and even the prospect of a relaxing water jog does not excite me one bit.

"Great" you're thinking, "Here's this new blogger who professes to love movement, live for it, and even she can't get her butt out the door."

Maybe that's the point, even those of us who love and crave activity don't always want to exercise--we hurt, get discouraged, bored, depressed, and injured. But, we keep chipping away, doing something to stay active to not totally lose the little bit of cardio improvement, weight control, or contentment that physical activity gives us.

Rather than beating myself up for not going to speed session this a.m., I congratulated myself for choosing not to go out in 20 degree weather when my low back is tight as a tick, and my right hamstring feels as if it has an alien living in it. Instead, I chose to hike with a friend later in the day when it will be a tad warmer and our constant chatter will distract me from the cold.

I have my daughter, Colette, and a workshop, Intro to Qi Gong, that I took at the weekend to remind me of the one principal I can say "I believe in". No Force is a Hakomi principal that allows me to step back from actions that I'm trying to make happen, like going to speed session because I don't want to let my friends down, lose training, or look like a wimp even though my body is exhausted and on the verge of injury. By allowing myself to not exercise, without judgment, allowed the possibility of an alternative way to be physical and thus I avoided the greatest threat to becoming a consistent exerciser--non-compliance.