On my mind...

My theme song...

Todo pasa y todo queda
Pero lo nuestro es pasar
Pasar haciendo camino
Camino sobre la mar

Nunca perseguí la gloria
Ni dejar la memoria
De los hombres mi canción
Yo amo los mundos sutiles
Ingrávidos y gentiles
Como pompas de jabón

Me gusta verlos pintarse
De Sol y grana volar
Bajo el cielo azul temblar
Subitamente y quebrarse
Nunca perseguí la gloria

Caminante son tus huellas el camino y nada más
Caminante no hay camino, se hace camino al andar
Al andar, se hace camino, y al volver la vista atrás
Se ve la senda que nunca se ha de volver a pisar
Caminante no hay camino, sino estelas en la mar

Hace algun tiempo en ese lugar
Donde hoy los bosques se visten de espinos
Se oyó la voz de un poeta gritar:
Caminante no hay camino, se hace camino al andar
Golpe a golpe, verso a verso

Murió el poeta lejos del hogar
Le cubre el polvo de un país vecino
Al alejarse le vieron llorar
Caminante no hay camino, se hace camino al andar
Golpe a golpe, verso a verso

Cuando el jilguero no puede cantar
Cuando el poeta es un peregrino
Cuando de nada nos sirve rezar
Caminante no hay camino, se hace camino al andar
Golpe a golpe, verso a verso
Golpe a golpe, verso a verso
Golpe a golpe, verso a verso

Serrat Joan Manuel

Santiago

Today is the feast day of Saint James. It has got to be a zoo over the ocean in Santiago de Compostela, though not quite as much as were it a Jubilee year (next year when the feast lands on a Sunday).


When we finally arrived in Santiago on 4 May 2004, my first reaction was, 'So this is the object of my desire? This is the thing for which I have been slogging 400+ kms?' And the next thought was, 'Oh God, do I have to go up all those stairs?' It was raining (of course; Galicia in a normal year has 165 or so days of rain) so it was best to go in and so we did. The rituals in which we engaged, placed our fingers into the Pillar of Glory and knocking our heads on the bust of the architect of the Romanesque church that is hidden behind that Baroque façade, no longer are permitted.


Of course what we really wanted to see was the massive thurible, the botafumeiro. Here, at the end of the Pilgrims' Mass, the attendants are stoking it up, about to launch it, and start pulling on the rope to get it swinging in a high arc over the north and south transepts. Stunning.

So I think of all those pilgrims who have descended on Santiago today knowing some of what it is like... knowing how hard it is to leave the pilgrim route.

Koan

Can someone please elucidate to me what this oft-used phrase, 'the faith once delivered to the saints,' means? I say this totally tongue-in-cheek. Compa spent days on the Alteplano of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela ruminating on this phrase. (This shot is what 30kms looked like: poplar trees every ten metres, straight, straight path right next to the road, no shade — absolute trudgery.)

Obviously it's a favourite phrase of the folks who are leaving TEC and they fling it at those of who remain, the apostate, because we haven't received whatever this exclusive faith is.

Here a little French is appropriate: Bigre.

Demain dès l'aube... je partirai

[with apologies to Victor Hugo]

It's that time of year when my heart turns toward the Camino (unlike the kings whose hearts turned to war in the spring per I and II Kings). Sadly, there is no Camino walk on the horizon this year — a move, new job, General Convention, Executive Council cause me to forfeit that trip; instead, we'll walk the Long Trail this year because we won't have to spend two days getting to and from the starting and end points.

Maybe in 2010 we can go back and do the Camino en entier all at once in one fell swoop... and perhaps we can tack on Finistere. We know that it took us about 30 days to walk the Camino in Spain so I could save up my unpaid days and tack them onto vacation. Walking the Camino all at once would use up all the vacation days but it would be worth it.

I would like to do the Camino to know if my body can sustain that type of walking beyond 17 days which I think is the longest slog we ever did. I read last night about people doing pain pyramids: days of 30-40-50-40-30 kms. That would only work on the Alteplano but I suppose if one got up early enough and were in shape enough, it would be possible... and yes, painful.

Having moved, I am not eligible for sabbatical for several years, even though it has been exactly five years since my last one (I walked out of GOE reading to enter into sabbatical). I have to hold onto that possibility for even longer.

So tonight I just dream about the Camino, thinking of all those people who currently are getting ready to start in a month or two.