Longtime Culver City Resident Walks Cross Country

Armed with a week’s worth of clothes, her Bhagavad Gita, a Bible, some computer files and a MacBook Pro, 72-year-old Doris Davis is getting ready for a walk that would make Forrest Gump proud: Starting March 8, she will be walking with a small troop of devoted women in order to make a statement for international peace. Davis caught up with Patch as she prepared for a weekend of festivities kicking off the Sole 2 Soul Walk.

Culver City Patch: What motivated you to take this walk?

Doris Davis: Last February Marianne Williamson did a conference in Los Angeles called “Sister Giant.” I went to her conference and she challenged women to step beyond their current stance in activism.

As I am an interfaith minister who wants to make an impact in the world, she made an appeal for sacred activism that lodged in me. She made me see that the women of the world are a sleeping force of good for the planet. Women who have come before us have made wonderful contributions, but have been devalued or often ignored or suppressed or denied. That is not happening so much now. I do sense that there is an opportunity for women to wake up and realize that they can change the world.

It was stated by the Dalai Lama in 2009 that, “Western women will save the world.” It’s all about the return of the divine feminine.

As a result of that conference, a group of women got together and launched the plan of walking across the country.

Patch: When will Sole 2 Soul begin?

Davis: The 100th anniversary of National Women’s Day is on March 8 and we will end on Sept. 21 in Washington D.C., which is the International Day of Peace. We will be starting in Oceanside, Calif., at the Oceanside Pier. We have Google Mapped a way to walk, and have an RV going ahead of us so that we can sleep.

Patch: How many miles that you will do a day?

Davis: We will be walking 22.2 miles a day. However, I am 72 years old, and when I was training, I figured that it was unrealistic for me to walk 22.2 miles per day. So there are four of us who are doing a relay. My partner Mary Knapp is going 11.1 miles a day and I am going 11.1 miles per day, so that will make up our 22.2 miles per day.  There will be six of us starting out. The plan is that people who hear about it will join us along the way, walk with us for a day or even for an hour. 

The general mission of the walk is: "Our purpose is to advance the understanding that women’s full and equally valued participation and contributions—in partnership with men—is essential now to resolve our global challenges."

Patch: What would make you happy at the end of this walk?

Davis: In 1953, Peace Pilgrim started walking at age 44 and walked at least 25,000 miles in her life. She took a tunic, a pencil and the clothes on her back. She would say, “My mission is to be a wayfarer on this earth until mankind has learned the way of peace.”

What would make me happy is that if the U.S. government would establish a department for peace. We already have a department for war. If that happened in my lifetime, I would die very happy. Our thoughts, our expressions communicated over time and space can truly change the world.