Soul's Code

For 30 days, we did not read a newspaper or see the news. On the Camino, we survived without Google News, the Daily Press, and CNN. And we missed the whole Paris Hilton soap opera. This morning as the headlines included the President’s colonoscopy and the furor the NFL football player Vick and his alleged dog fighting, I wished I was back in Spain.

I do not intend to cancel my newspaper, cable, and Internet subscriptions. However, I am struck by how non-essential information clutters our lives. It may be diverting, even entertaining, but it can easily take up too much of our attention. We are glued to the news when we could be out walking.

Often when we meet others, we ask:  “And what do you do?” In that way, we defined others by their work. And in turn, we are defined by our work. On the Camino, people are careful not to ask that or other prying questions. You learn about others only what they want to tell you.

So we don’t know if the people we meet are doctors, hairdressers, or Indian chiefs. We do know if they are courteous, helpful, thoughtful, and pleasant in spite of crowded hostels with limited facilities and the long trek over rough terrain.

The Camino is not anonymous. You are known there, but you are known not by your status, family, marital status, or income. Instead, you are known for yourself.

If you wash and wear the same three t-shirts and two pair of slacks for a month, on occasion your clothes don’t match. If you get up in the dark, pack your backpack, and leave in the dark, there’s not much opportunity to put on makeup. If you shower and wash your hair in a community shower without a blow dryer, and sometimes not even a mirror, and then wear a hat for several hours, you definitely will have a bad hair day.

Bit by bit on the Camino, we—and other pilgrims–became stripped to the essential person. To our delight, we found that people liked us, not for the outer person, but for ourselves.

The best ways to handle anger: nude photo sessions, slutty behavior or destructive behavior

A woman left children entrusted to her care unattended to venture into the woods and pose for nude pictures, the Associated Press reports. The woman, a 20-year-old, said the photo session was designed to get back at her boyfriend.

It’s, indeed, a low point when we use sex to try and hurt those we purport to love, let alone put children in the way of harm or neglect. We’ve written about the benefits of nudity and highlighted different perspectives on sex. Let a quick thought from David Deida’s “Instant Enlightenment” serve as a commentary on this case:

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Homer Simpson has appeared next to the ancient pagan fertility symbol of Cerne Abbas, according to the BBC.

I traveled in Spain for 30 days with only three summer shirts and two pair of slacks. It was a continual cycle of wash and wear. At home again, I opened my dresser drawers to find them stuffed full of shirts, so many in fact that the overflow is piled on a shelf in my closet. I was both amazed at my great array of choices and aghast. Did I really need all these shirts?

My husband left an almost new pair of Rockports in one of the refugios on the Camino. Because of his blisters, he could not wear them. They were heavy, and he didn’t really need them.

I’ve been to several clothing stores since my return, but I have an aversion to buying anything. I have found that I have more than enough to wear.

Throughout our pilgrimage in Spain, we saw pilgrims walking on the Camino in varying states of duress. We saw pilgrims with bleeding blisters. Others had to walk in flip flops because their feet were in such rough shape. Many people had a knee wrapped in an ace bandage and I saw one woman with both knees encased. People limped and coughed. They were exhausted and sore and yet they carried on.

A woman from Austria recounted how she had gotten a hotel because of the rain. She had determined to spend the day resting until she looked out the window and saw the other pilgrims trudging on in spite of the weather and she knew she had to join them. She had miles yet to go on the Camino.

Having a goal, in this case, completing the pilgrimage to Santiago, enables one to preserve and keep going no matter what happens along the way. Without a goal, the blister, the aches, the rain, the pains become ends in themselves. With a goal in view, however, these things take their proper place as temporary and non-essential annoyances.

At Samos we stayed in a huge, municipal refugio, a dormitory for 80 to 90 pilgrims. It turned out to be a mistake. A group awoke about five A.M. and began laughing and joking with no thought for the other exhausted pilgrims.

A few nights later, we came upon another municipal refugio at Gonzar and we were hesitant to stay there because of our experience at Samos. Storm clouds were gathering and the next like place to stay was 7K ahead. We decided to take a chance.

The Gonzar refugio housed only 18 pilgrims, and we settled in for the night wondering if we would get a decent sleep. The next morning we were surprise to awake about seven and find that most of the pilgrims were already on their way, and that they had crept out silently.

Could the difference between the two refugios be explained as the difference between a city and a small town? In the city, (Samos) pilgrims were anonymous while in a small town (Gonzar) personal responsibility reasserted itself.

http://www.sexhelp.com/sast.cfm

In our technological twenty-first century, we have become accustomed to experiencing the world and other people indirectly. We see the world and others through the windows of our air conditioned cars and homes and on the screens of computers, TVs, and movie theaters.

Walking days and days in all weather over difficult terrain on the Camino brought us into intimate contact with the earth. We found it unbelievably beautiful, even in the wind and rain and cold.

Sharing dormitory-style accommodations, meals, and the journey connected us to the other pilgrims, temporarily dispelling the isolation of modern life. We found the other pilgrims from all over the world to be a lot like us.