Follow your desire lines
“Do not go where the path
may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” –Ralph
Waldo Emerson
In
the park where we play, there are nicely laid out concrete paths, leading from
the swings to the picnic tables, from the castle to the soccer field, from the
water fountain to the bridge, from here to there, from A to B.
And then there are the real paths, the dirt ones, the ones that shoot out from the concrete to connect where people really go, to memorialize the real actions of children playing, to acknowledge the real patterns of living, of human purpose, of some honest destination.
Last
year, my friend Anita cut an article out of the L.A. Times for me, with a note: “I thought you might like this.” Indeed
I did.
“…those well-worn ribbons of dirt that you see
cutting across a patch of grass, often with nearby sidewalks ignored—particularly
those that offer a less direct route. In winter, desire lines appear
spontaneously as tramped down paths in the snow. I love that these paths are
never perfectly straight. Instead, like a river, they meander this way and
that, as if to prove that desire itself isn't linear and (literally, in this
case) straightforward.” — wordspy.com
Some landscape architects actually design
walkways to accommodate these emergent designs, tracking
the usage by waiting to see where people prefer to go and then building
their official paths there. (Would this create more unofficial paths, I wonder?
Is the desire to be outside the lines, to forge our own path, so strong?) Desire
lines indicate yearning, according to John La Plante, the chief traffic
engineer for T. Y. Lin International, an engineering firm. Indeed they do. A
yearning to go our own way, to forge through the brush of life, to make a new
path, to ignore the concrete in lieu of the feel of our foot on real earth, to
see the results of our own agency through space.
A paper
by Carl Myhill examines how companies can be successful by focusing on the desire
lines of their products and customers:
“Desire lines are an ultimate expression of human
desire or natural purpose. An optimal way to design pathways in accordance with
natural human behaviour, is to not design them at all. Simply plant grass seed
and let the erosion inform you about where the paths needs to be.”
How hard this is! Don’t we know best? Aren’t we
the experts? Shouldn’t we set the path in stone and have them follow us? Perhaps, my friend, the answer is no, no, a
thousand times no.
Myhill poetically
calls desire lines “the ultimate unbiased expression of natural human purpose—a
perfect expression of natural purpose.” Natural human purpose. What is mine?
Yours? Maybe if I look at the paths I’ve worn, over and over again, I’ll see
that purpose show itself, like corn fields create patterns only when I’m flying
over them. Perhaps it takes some distance to see that path; at the very least,
it requires a different vantage point.
Marica
Sevelj, a blogger from Wellington, New Zealand, goes further to explore if
and how desire lines connect to learning:
“Desire lines are linked to urban planning…I
immediately started thinking about how this might apply to learning and
teaching… Is the curriculum itself an example of a desire line created by a
group of experts who wholeheartedly believe this is what the learner needs to
know, or is the curriculum an example of a concrete path which learners are
expected to use but don't necessarily want to? Could we take this approach in
learning? Would mayhem ensue if we just planted seeds and waited to see what
happened?”
When we teach, whose
desire line are we teaching to, following, demanding? Mine as teacher, or my
students’, as learner? Am I willing to follow them?
As Sevelj notes, The Walking Project is extending the concept behind desire
lines to uncover the stories those paths tell.
“The Walking Project uses the paths people make
across vacant lots in Detroit and across fields in South Africa — desire lines
— as springboards to explore the paths we walk and how they are formed through
culture, geography, language, economics and love. It looks at how people make
their own paths; how and why people’s paths cross; and how changing patterns of
movement can alter perceptions, attitudes and lives.”
Paths
crossing, creating patterns and another layer of complexity. This image (I
imagine Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and that invisible thread that ties her
to friends across London, snapping only when she jolts awake—or falls asleep,
one forgets which, they are so alike) creates spider webs of connection, like so
much emotional longitude and latitude, except more random, aren’t they? Or not.
How insanely random and yet how right, all those paths I’ve crossed around the
world, accidental juxtapositions—and yet paths I cannot imagine not having
crossed, as if the crossing were the destiny. Patterns I can’t see because I’m
not high enough, but there I am as part of it, believing I am forging a new
way, but perhaps not. Feeling I am defining my human purpose, but perhaps tracing
a pattern already lightly penciled in? Feeling the renegade, but truly just
being my own real self—in what kind of world is that being deviant?
(Click each photo to enlarge) In the left photo, look
at the curve in the road. You’ll see a thin sliver of footpath connecting the
bend in the road to a concrete path that mirrors its curve. The barrier in the
second photo was put in place to discourage that desire line. Now, people just
walk around the barrier.
Several
years ago, Peter Merholz wrote an illustrated essay that
demonstrated how
When faced with a bird’s eye view of my own
desire lines, measuring in quick paces the decisions I’ve made or not made, do
I allow them to become the real path, or do I put up a concrete barrier to
redirect myself back to the “official” road? And what is that process of
creating our own path? What feelings does it entail, engender, cause?
But sometimes, just sometimes, we come upon a new and unexpected clearing, a
magical place unanticipated in our daily thoughts or even our dreams; and when
we do, we are so amazed that we cease even to wonder whether we will be able to
find our way back home, or, perchance, whether this might in fact be our new
home.”
Wow. Wow. WOW. I don't even know where to begin...other than to re-read it several more times. I've just linked to it...I really want to share it with my readers. I'm going to share it with some of the staff at the school where I work, too...especially the part about curriculum. Thank you for this.
Posted by: Marilyn | 07 December 2005 at 09:35
oh, i just love how these paths are called "desire lines." something about that just tickles me.
came your way thru marilyn, what a wonderful idea for a website, 37 days. and a great post! thank you!
Posted by: kat | 07 December 2005 at 10:38
What a great post. Thanks!
Posted by: Jill | 07 December 2005 at 15:42
wow. thanks for sharing an amazing post, it made my heart flutter. now i'm going to reread it again and savour every word.
Posted by: amirah | 08 December 2005 at 01:29
Patti, look at what I found this morning:
Case in point - I worked at a building that had two entrances. A side entrance and a formal entry. Of course we all used the side entrance - it was much more expedient and direct. But doing do wore a path across a tiny 3-foot strip of grass - so the building owner put up a hedge. Didn't stop us; people pushed their way through the hedge. One guy suggested poisoning it. I don't think he was kidding. It became a battle of wills. Finally - the building people relented, and cut a hole in the hedge for people using the side door. Everyone was happy. The moral of the story is to put the path where people will use it - not where you think it looks best or is most logical. The same theory applies to automated sales and support systems, which are often inexplicable to callers.
From another Patti, actually Patricia Keefe who writes at http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2005/12/help_us_help_ou.html?sssdmh=dm4.160289
Great post!
Posted by: Steve Sherlock | 09 December 2005 at 08:03
Also came here from Marilyn. Very well written post, lots of food for thought. Like Marilyn the most prevailing question for me is the one you ask at the end: when is it laziness, when is it a true desire line, a path of purpose?
I have never looked at the roadmap of my life from this angle and I am intrigued because the issue of laziness has been looming large at the back of my mind. I have taken plenty of shortcuts, if I had to create them amongst the paved paths, then so be it, I would find and make an easy way across. I have often thought to myself that I ought to have taken the path that's already laid out leading to the given destination. Did I not miss essential things alongside the path by taking the shortcut?
Mmm, I shall have to ponder all this a bit more ...
Many thanks for an inspirational piece of writing :)
Kerstin
Posted by: Kerstin | 09 December 2005 at 12:38
Desire lines yes Laziness - maybe so, but life's too short not to take short cuts. How about a desire line path as a metaphor for new words and expression or new meanings for old words at first used by one then a few and if it makes sense by many all the way to the dictionary. The same could be said for any new idea.
Posted by: Teresa | 22 May 2006 at 11:48
How is it possible that you wrote this post almost a YEAR ago?? Re-reading it today, the resonance bells rang most loudly when I got to this: "But sometimes, just sometimes, we come upon a new and unexpected clearing, a magical place unanticipated in our daily thoughts or even our dreams; and when we do, we are so amazed that we cease even to wonder whether we will be able to find our way back home, or, perchance, whether this might in fact be our new home." One sentence uttered by my mate this morning...and I was already carving out a new desire line... I take away something new every time I read this post.
Posted by: Marilyn | 20 November 2006 at 18:53
I love this post (yeah - I know I'm a little late... I only discovered your site a few months back and I'm still catching up!)
I love this post because I *think* about this all the time. However... I will catch myself stepping off the path and immediately correct myself right back to the pavement.
Grown in Michigan we really really like our lawns! I was raised on a farm where we had a lot of lawn beside the acres of corn and fenced pastures for the ewes. My Dad always fussed about staying off certain areas of grass... as if a lawn is for display, not play (dis-play). Other areas were alright.
Years later when I was in Basic Training at Lackland AFB one of the multitudes of rules we had to follow was to always take the shortest path BUT "STAY OFF THE GRASS". That's what sidewalks and prescribed paths are for. I didn't find this hard to follow. As with most of the rules, restrictions, and commands they barked at us, I thought of my Dad. Coincidentally, it was during that time that I thought maybe my Dad picked this anal retentiveness from his own time in the Navy. Not that they delt with much grass while at sea, but I assume they wanted to go tot he grass when they docked, but weren't allowed except in designated areas.
So even now, I respect a beautiful lawn or a landscaped park and for the most part, I stay on the prescribed path... and off the grass... but in MY yard... on MY lawn... I tell people "feel free to take off your shoows and socks.. the grass is here for the feeling!"
It's not so much anout lawn, grass, or landscaping... just my very own strange angle on desire lines ;)
Posted by: ® Rosie | 04 December 2006 at 05:10
What an interesting little side-track to find myself on. I was looking for a picture of Cheerios to show to a Danish friend I chat online with. (He didn't know what a 'Cheerio' was.. and somehow I ended up here.
I'll definitely be back to peruse and savour your thoughts and ideas. Thanks for sharing, you brought a bit of sunshine into an otherwise dreary day!
Posted by: Jane Martin | 11 January 2007 at 16:21
this is great. I read it before (? month ago) and I have stumbled upon it again as I searched for a post I lost and hoped that I would find....
I read an article in a local magazine a couple weeks ago...it profiled a man ...landscape artist interested in natural landscaping...following nature and I am sure there was mention of this idea there....
if you see this comment, please know how far reaching it has been...still there for someone like myself to learn from...
Posted by: jen | 01 May 2007 at 03:08
I've enjoyed discussing this with family and friends. Patti's words strike a chord within everyone I've shared this with. It's an amazing, thought-provoking collection of essays, but this one is by far, my favorite.
Posted by: LLinda | 28 November 2007 at 11:12
I am a graduate of the University of Toledo, in Ohio. Thought you might find one of it's "points of pride" of interest after reading this particular post. During the Blizzard of 1978, the land in mid-campus, which used to be a faculty parking lot and Army barracks, was completely covered by snow. Graduate students in the university's geography department conducted a study and, from the Bell Tower, photographed the paths on the snow made by students walking to class. The design of the sidewalks in Centennial Mall was then constructed using the layout of those paths. The link below has a wonderful view from a bove.
http://www.geography.utoledo.edu/campus.htm
Thank you for your writing here. It has helped me to focus more on what I think is important..... Implementation? Well as it is said - every day is day one!
Posted by: Connie Carpenter Macko | 30 November 2007 at 21:25
Wow, Patti! I'm new to your blog and am reading, reading, reading... trying to digest it all. This post hits very close to home, as I have been trying to find MY path in life for the past year or so. I've found that I'm on my most natural path when I close my eyes and follow my instinct. It's very hard to do, actually, considering the rest of the world incessantly is trying to redirect me, tell me where the REAL path is, and that my path is not valid... This method takes me through hoops and loops, and back around again, but it is MY path and my Self knows it to be true! Sometimes I progress slower than others, often I feel lost and wonder when I am going to pop out into familiar territory... but you know, the most satisfying times have been when I end up somewhere completely new and realize "this is my new home!"
Lots of food for thought, thanks for this!
Ashley
Posted by: Ashley | 20 February 2008 at 12:49
Gorgeous post. I'd heard about desire lines. Loved the concept and the way the words rolled over my tongue. But never read such expanded thoughts about them as yours.
Posted by: Mahala | 20 October 2008 at 19:40
I often speak of desire, as it is the perfect expression of human natural purpose...to get from point a to point b.
Thank you for this post
=Kevin Leversee
Posted by: Account Deleted | 16 October 2009 at 14:28