Susi Stahl Palmrose, trying to continue the walker way

From Port Townsend, I drove down to Portland to visit with Susi Stahl Palmrose, who was on the United States and European walks. She grew up on an intentional community in Virginia and attended a Quaker high school. She was eighteen years old during the first walk; she turned nineteen on the last day in Washington D.C.. Now, she has three children and a husband. "One time on the walk in the Midwest," she recalled, "I was walking in the rain and it was kind of chilly. On the outside it would look kind of miserable. I saw pity on people's faces when they glanced my way as they were whizzing by in their metal boxes. But I was very happy and very content. I felt there was nothing else I'd rather be doing, a very peaceful feeling. I was right with the world."

"I joined the walk right out of high school so it was my way of stepping out into the world on my own. Everything was sharp and bright and interesting and new. I remember walking in California, I wanted to capture every sight and tell my family about it. And the experience of just walking is a way of being very real, down to the basics and very simple. You're right there on the road or in the mountains and you got there on your own two feet; that was an internal thing for me. I felt like I was not only doing something for my own benefit, but also setting a good example and a good expression for the rest of the world.

"I know now that those experiences that I was having are important to me for the rest of my life because now when I just take a short walk any where, it's almost like I can just tap into my old walker self. So it's more meaningful for me to just take a little walk. The walk formed something of who I am. Now, in my life I like to bike a lot, so I've transferred some of that to the bike. It can become a tiny revolutionary act of sanity in an insane world because you're slowing things down to a pace that's more natural. I think that our pace of life is unnatural and hasn't given anybody a better lifestyle. I like some things about technology, but a lot of it has made our lives more stressful. Just because we have more machines doing our work doesn't necessarily make us happy or give us more time to relax."

After the walks, Susi began to raise a family. She went back to school when her youngest son was old enough to attend kindergarten. "I wanted to help people in some way," she said. "Nursing was a good fit once I learned the philosophy of nursing. I try to help people where they're at and I'm trying to be non-judgemental and compassionate, even when people have destroyed themselves by their own lifestyle choices such as drugs, drinking, smoking and obesity. Those can be the symptoms of the unhealthiness of the earth; the opposite of what the walk stood for. The medical world is almost enabling the unhealthy lifestyle to continue by allowing people to live half sick by simply prescribing medicine or doing medical procedures, but I'm in the medical world. That's the conflict that I'm trying to work out. The challenge is to be unconditionally loving while knowing that people are accountable for their choices. It's not up to me to give them their lessons. It's up to them and God. But I do encourage them to make healthy choices." Susi tries to set a healthy example by riding her bicycle to work.

In raising her children, Susi tries to set a good example. "Angela (oldest child) has said that I'm more peaceful and relaxed than anyone she knows, so I was glad that I'm that way and she sees that. I've raised my children to be concerned about other living things; I think any living thing is just as important as humans. It's all part of the natural balance of things. I've tried to teach my kids that, but it's up to them to decide for themselves and figure out their own ways."

Tomorrow, we plan to do some hiking and we're doing a program for friends in the evening in her living room. Some friends who do not have vehicles plan to take the light rail system to a station that is only a short distance from Susi's house.