The Aesthetic Sidewalk

Moving from Nebraska to northwest Arkansas ended up being more of a culture shock than I anticipated. But it ended up being some of the little things that I had a more difficult time adjusting to.

One of these things little things was the lack of sidewalks. There are a few, here and there. Particularly in new subdivisions, on account of a new ordinance in our little ville. But they are scant; and some of them are in miserable condition.

I very much appreciate pedestrian culture. I’ve talked before of how walking affords us the opportunity to observe. To take in. To perceive. But more than this, sidewalks serve an aesthetic function.

They act as a buffer between the roadway and the much more intimate environs of a house — or even of commercial structures. They serve as a transition from the fast moving and strange-of-scale automobile realm to the personal and intimate realm of the home. This is even more so when we find an easement in between a street and a sidewalk.

Something so simple. Something I took for granted all of my growing-up years. And yet I’ve come to see its importance now that I am without.

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