“To make walking into an investigation, a ritual, a meditation, is a special subset of walking, physiologically like and philosophical unlike the way the mail carrier brings the mail and the office worker reaches the train”
Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust
I would say postmen, and to a certain extent commuters too, do relate to walking in a philosophical way. Their routine is not all drudgery, and they can no doubt find solace, as we all can, in those often solitary moments. The walking part of our day is often ritualistic, maybe you walk the dog first, before taking the same route to work or school, picking up a coffee at the same café, going to the same tube station, standing on the same platform, walking to the same bus stop, dropping your coffee cup in the same bin, chatting to the same person, commenting on the weather, or the traffic. It is routine but not without focus, what goes on in our head has all the elements of investigation, ritual and meditation. Its purpose may be getting from A to B, or delivering post along a route, but engagement in it is not that perfunctory.
The interruption in our behavioural pattern during lockdown highlighted how valuable and necessary these subset of routines were. I don’t think we would have felt such yearning if they were less vital.