Not a walk in the park?

Reader question:

Please explain this sentence, with “not a walk in the park” in particular: Life, sometimes you’re really not a walk in the park.

My comments:

Here, life is likened to a person (you), and then it’s likened to a walk in the park.

Sometimes, life is really difficult.

That’s what “really not a walk in the park” means.

Literally, a walk in the park is something we all do and can do. It takes little effort. It is pleasant. It is leisurely. Right now it is a good time to take a walk in the park and watch red leafs fall.

When “a walk in the park” is used as an idiom, it likewise means it’s something easy, not difficult; pleasant and enjoyable, not painful and tortuous

Unlike life itself, of course. Life is fraught with challenges, you see, what with all the growing pains one has to go through, plus getting jilted when they look for a mate, forming a family, raising kids, not to mention illness, losing a job, falling off a cliff, getting hit by a car, so on and so forth.

Life is tumultuous, in other words, full of ups and downs, bumps and hardships.

It is, in short, really not a walk in the park.

All right, let’s read a few media examples for a closer look at “walk in the park” in the idiomatic sense:

1. Walking is sometimes equated with simplicity itself. If your task is a “walk in the park,” it might require little more than baby steps to get things moving.

But putting one foot in front of the other can set you on a path for significantly better health, experts say – even without a lot of heavy lifting or jumping through hoops.

“People underestimate just how important it is to walk,” said Dr. Tiwaloluwa Ajibewa, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

Walking can help with weight control and reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and more, said Dr. Kelley Pettee Gabriel, associate dean for research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Public Health. For people with heart disease, “it’s really helpful for the management of symptoms and improving quality of life.”

- Walk this way – it's quite good for you, by Michael Merschel, American Heart Association News, April 1, 2024.

2. Appearing in World Cup and European Championship finals was a walk in the park compared to a cameo appearance in a British TV drama for Emmanuel Petit.

Months after helping France win the 1998 World Cup, the Arsenal legend was at the height of his fame and form when, out of the blue, he was asked to appear as himself in The Bill, which aired between 1984 and 2010.

Petit knew little about the iconic police show and was understandably left confused by the request. However, he gladly accepted and appeared in a festive edition of the ITV programme, showing up in hospital with a bouquet of flowers and a signed Arsenal ball for a patient.

“To be honest, I didn’t know about The Bill,” he told Mirror Football. “When I was asked, I was a little bit confused because I’m not an actor, I cannot act. I was born to be a footballer, not an actor.

“I remember going to the hospital and holding a rose for a person who was sick. I met her parents outside the room and said ‘it was very important for me to be here’, something like that. It was a very short.”

A short but anxious appearance for Petit, who was far more at home at Highbury or the Stade de France. He recalled: “Someone told me I looked less nervous on the pitch when I play in a World Cup or a European competition than trying to act for a few minutes in The Bill!

“I said, ‘yes, because I’m not comfortable’. I cannot control my emotions for that. I’m not an actor and people saw that. But it was a very short scene, which was OK for me.”

- Arsenal icon won the World Cup and Euros but was more nervous about appearing in The Bill, Mirror.co.uk, June 23, 2024.

3. Julien Alfred had a successful Paris Olympic Games where she became the first athlete to claim Olympic medals for her country, Saint Lucia. However, her journey to the top has not been a walk in the park as she had to struggle to afford basic training gear.

Competing at the Stade de France in the women’s 100m final, Alfred defeated Sha’Carri Richardson and Melissa Jefferson to win the title in a national record time of 10.72 seconds. Richardson and Jefferson settled for second and third in respective times of 10.87s and 10.92s.

In the 200m final, the 23-year-old finished an impressive second in a time of 22.08s behind Gabby Thomas who timed 21.83s. Another American, Brittany Brown, completed the podium with 22.20s.

In an interview recently, Alfred narrated her tough upbringing that propelled her to fight for top spots at the Olympic Games.

Alfred’s athletics journey started when she was nine years old but the loss of her father, who was one of her greatest cheerleaders, almost ended her career. She was at this time under the tutelage of Cuthbert Modeste who coached a track club named “Survivors.”

She revealed that on top of her supporter passing away, her family struggled financially and she was forced to leave the camp. However, coach Modeste ensured her talent did not go to waste:

“I actually stopped running in grade six when my dad passed away in 2013 and then Twa Ti Né came back to look for me in Ciceron. He came to Ciceron, he looked for me to come back,” Alfred said.

“He waited for me at the Ciceron bus stop every single time, and took me to the Mindoo Phillip Park for training,” she added.

- “Sometimes we didn’t have running shoes” – Julien Alfred shares struggles and motivation behind historic 100m gold medal victory at Paris Olympics, Sportskeeda.com, August 20, 2024.

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）