The 1997 movie “Mrs. Brown” is the dramatization of legends, based in fact, surrounding the reign of Queen Victoria. The film depicts how she entered a long period of mourning following the death of her husband, Prince Albert, in 1861, and how her absence from the public stage gave rise to the political forces of republicanism.
Tory Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli kept up a correspondence with the queen throughout her mourning period, and eventually struck up a relationship with her Scottish-born horseman John Brown, with whom the queen was close. The film illustrates how, working through Brown, Disraeli coaxed the queen out of private life. This inspired the people, bolstered the Tory cause, and likely saved the monarchy.
Maybe the story is apocryphal, but it is a good one nonetheless. In the movie, Disraeli visits the queen at Balmoral, her Scotland residence, and invites Brown to go on a hike up a mountain. At the top of the mountain, Disraeli persuades the horseman to cooperate in the effort to present the queen to the public again.
This scene, more than any other, struck me. Something about the hike took Brown away from the royal goings-on and allowed him to see things in a new way. Connecting to nature and observing the grand views brought new clarity of mind. He did the right thing at the right moment.
I’ve never been a hiker, not since my father dragged me out on walks as a boy. It’s never been my thing. Instead I’ve mostly sat at desks all day, perfectly happily, and chosen gyms for exercise.
But somehow, watching this scene of the great Prime Minister Disraeli hiking on a Scottish mountain inspired me. I figured that if it is good enough for Disraeli, it is good enough for me.
So off I went to a famous mountain hike in my area. What can I say? The experience was glorious in every way, a treat for the mind, body, and spirit. Now I get the whole point of hiking, and I can see why the above story, true or not, has become legendary in the English mind.
Fall is an ideal time for a hike because of the leaves’ changing colors. No painting can possibly be as beautiful as what nature paints herself, and on a canvas as far as the eye can see. On a clear day from atop a mountain, one cannot be anything but humbled in the presence of the vastness of the terrain, and newly aware of the power and beauty of nature.
Nothing on the laptop can compare. It reminds me of the difference between hearing a pipe organ on a recording versus hearing it in a great cathedral. The second experience is fully physical and reaches deep into the soul. A recording merely gives you notes, and cannot recreate the full effect. It’s the same way with hiking: You must experience the whole of it.
The physical effects are similarly profound. The relentless upward climb calls on muscle groups not usually used. It can be exhausting, depending on the incline, but the fresh air and views make it all tolerable. It also works one’s core and back, and you can feel the lungs expand and the heart working in new ways.
How much better is this than the treadmill at the gym? I have to believe it’s better. It is certainly more natural and it engages more of the body, especially if you have to balance on rocks and different heights.
Again, I can see why hiking is such an ancient practice, a thing shared by peasants and aristocrats alike.
In this post-COVID-19 period, we all need practice in getting out and getting in touch with the outdoors and nature. This “stay home and stay safe” stuff traumatized millions with the message that nowhere is safe except your sofa indoors. Authorities shut the parks and playgrounds, and people were denounced and even arrested for wanting to get out.
Utterly preposterous! Health requires getting out in the fresh air with the sun beaming down and the foliage in view. It reminds me of the children’s book “A Secret Garden,” in which a father keeps his lame son in a dark room for fear of exposure to the outside world. It also reminds me of the fairy tale about Rapunzel, who was kept in a tower by an evil witch and warned constantly of the dangers of the outside world. In both cases, it was getting out that cured them. There is wisdom in that.
“All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking,” Friedrich Nietzsche writes, and he might be right about that. It’s supremely clarifying. As someone with an implausible daily writing deadline for The Epoch Times, and a professional obligation to combine creativity and insight with subject mastery and facts, keeping the intellectual juices flowing is of prime importance.
Hiking has proven to be a great benefit. Get away from the computer and the cellphone. Remember what matters. Consider the vast expanse of the world around us. Marvel in God’s creation. Be amazed and mystified by what nature has given to us as gifts to admire.
Be inspired by the air we breathe outside: Indeed, the very word “inspire” comes from the Latin word for breathing air. In the Jewish and Christian traditions, God breathes air into the first man to give him life, while we breathe back, especially in song, as an act of gratitude for life itself.
In fact, only four years ago, the mass media was demonizing singing in church as a super-spreading event, as if the act alone represented a threat to others. It is the opposite. Breathing is life. Take that away or restrict it and you kill life itself, as many discovered as relatives were put on ventilators and died.
As Henry David Thoreau writes of his time living on Walden Pond, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
It is the vigorous hike that replicates that learning experience. The payoff comes as one reaches the mountain peak, after the patient puts one foot in front of the other for an hour or more. You reach the top a bit out of breath, but breathing in the fresh air and experiencing awesome views in all directions, newly aware of how much we cannot see and experience on the ground and indoors.
I’ve never been a gamer, but I simply cannot imagine that any digits on the screen can provide as much sense of adventure as a simple hike up a mountain. I recently received a visitor from another continent who, upon learning that he was coming here, first researched what mountains were available to climb near me. Now I get it. It’s easily as interesting as any shopping district, and sure beats staring at screens.
As we approach the most contentious and perhaps consequential presidential election of my life, consider that the best place to find peace and insight might not be the TV screen. It might be a few miles from where you are, away from all the artifice, roil, and noise.
In short, Benjamin Disraeli was correct. The place for clarity is on the mountain peak following a long hike. It wipes away the cruft and replaces mental fog with new awareness. It’s a benefit to the mind, body, and human spirit. So simple, and absolutely free of charge! Indeed, as the old song says, the best things in life are free. Hiking is surely among the best things.
