Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

    One of our friends is off again, hiking and writing about his adventures back on the Camino de Santiago; he had come so close to completing the journey two years ago, but his knees and shoes got the better of him and he was forced to return.  So he is off to complete the journey, this time with his wife and their close friend (each of whom is a bit more detail-oriented and so have pre-booked hostels and generously allowed him his freedom to wake-and-go at his vampirish schedule, bored as he might be waiting for them hours later as they arrive at a normal hour).  His earlier blog writings (quite interesting reading) gave some of the history of the Camino, while his current writings seem to be presenting a newer, perhaps wisdom-gained insight into the Camino (yes, I did write about some of these tales of the Camino earlier).  They are traveling one of the four common routes, this particular one starting in Spain, the original path (what the official Camino site terms "the primitive" way or "Camino de Santiago Primitivo) being rather difficult and less traveled since it crosses the high mountains of Asturias.  But walking the Camino is a pilgrimage and one that has lasted centuries; here's how the site describes it: Camino de Santiago means freedom, culture, sport, nature, tradition, challenge, peace but above all it is freedom.  Numerous emperors like Charlemagne, popes like Calixtus II, kings like Alfonso II, brave knights like the Spanish “El Cid” or the Knights Templar, noblemen, thousands of priests, farmers, beggars, travelers, the healthy, the sick, the blind, the lame, the rich and the homeless; all of them were pilgrims in el Camino de Santiago and all of them were treated the same, because no one knew if the dirty, tired and blistered pilgrim that just arrived in the village before sunset was a king, a bishop or a pauper.  They were and still are all pilgrims always looking for something, always bringing new ideas.

    People undertake such pilgrimages for many reasons, some seeking something unknown, some seeking enlightenment, some seeking the physical challenge, some simply adventurous and seeking a new experience; many travelers however are following a religious path.  Throughout the world, following the path of spiritual leaders has been something many replicate, from the 300+ miles route of St. Paul in Turkey to the traditionally barefoot crossings of St. Patrick's footsteps in Ireland (National Geographic Traveler had a brief summary of some of these pilgrimages as well as a more detailed following of one of their writer's crossing of the Camino); perhaps the most well known pilgrimage might be the Hajj (open only to believers of the Muslim faith) which draws 3 million visitors each year.

Photo of the Hajj from the PBS series, Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler

 
    For others, a pilgrimage might be less of a religious path and more of a spiritual one, say in crossing the Appalachian Trail or scaling a difficult mountain (perhaps best depicted in the trek to ascend the Shark's Fin in the film Meru).   For others still, a pilgrimage might be a journey simply taking place within themselves.

    It was thus that the PBS film on Janis Joplin caught my attention.  Here was a rejected rebel of sorts (her siblings say that she defied the rules at an early age), her self-esteem plummeting when her brief foray into leaving her home town for Austin, Texas found her being voted "Ugliest Man" by the local fraternities at the University (she never even attended there, the males of the fraternities apparently just intimidated by this wild woman who openly expressed what she was feeling when she sang at local clubs).  She eventually ended up having it all (however you picture that term), from performing twice at Monterrey to numerous recording contracts, and still as her fame grew she wondered why the band members would go home to someone (to a home) after performing and she would go home alone (she felt this even after many men, some sincere, cherished her and wanted her as a girlfriend or wife).  Her own journey of discovery was a long one, but one she said that she always saw even when others felt that she was a bit crazy.  As many band members described her, they had never known anyone who showed the entirety of their emotions all the time.  It took its toll (she died at age 27, just months before her most famous album came out).

    So it is along these lines that my wife and I depart in a few days for our own pilgrimage, albeit quite distanced from a strenuous one.  We will cruise the Inside Passage of Alaska, something we have had on our "bucket list" for more than a decade.  Granted, it follows a path all our own, a time of escape and solitude, a time mixed with tons of other people and yet time alone in one's thoughts, a time simply admiring what is there around you and often just out of reach, but only so because you are simply not looking...a time to turn off cell phones.  So let this be fair warning should you suddenly wonder why no posts have arrived as the days go by.   For as with you, a pilgrimage doesn't have to be across the world.  It is one of your own making, for your own reasons, and the questions, thoughts and answers might just be yours alone to discover...
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