Day 16
I decided on the shorter but more arduous mountain route, versus the longer route passing through monastery of Somoza today.
The terrain was again full of more rain forest, hamlets, cattle, and the like…
As I arrived to Sarria I was originally intending to stay at the Monastery of Magdalena which was the last stop out of town, and I finally found it after getting help from local homeless guy. On the way up I passed by a crucifix and lookout over Sarria, and then after getting to the monastery, one of the monks suggested I stay at the municipal, given its proximity to market and restaurants and it’s cost being 40% less. I went along.
At the albergue I ran into Gabby and Ignacio again, which was nice, as it is has been good to build up a small network of camino friends who sort of look out for you along the way.
Before checking into the Albergue we had a beer and some pinchos at the restaurant up the street from Albergue where we saw Miguel the Andaluz for the last time as he was powering forward to Santiago at 2x speed. He, being and ex legioneer and full of grit and energy, could not sit around for an early finish and rest this day. He said his goodbyes in a mixture of hearty Spanish and Arabic and we all laughed and reminisced about the few days walking and dialogue with him.
I also ran into Lorich and another gentleman from the U.K. that I had met back in Carrion de los Condes a couple of weeks prior. They had also formed their group and were more or less walking and or staying together in the same albergues at the time.
After my routine I grabbed a Coke Zero across the way from the Albergue. I saw an pilgrim that I’ve been seeing from town to town, usually drinking heavily every day and looking semi homeless, engaging passers by, pilgrim and on pilgrim, with “buen camino!” followed by other garbled and self humoring commentary as to the passers by and his opinion thereof.
I’ve seen this too on the camino, a few folks that appear to segue off the guardrails of life, but seem perhaps detached, I think the Camino being the venue and not the occasion or cause of their detachment, from community, and either crying against, or out for, a reattachment of some sorts.
Not sure but there seems to be a fine line among those who find themselves detached, me having been one of them at a time, some of whom grow in resentment, frustration, and perhaps distortion or myopia of perception as to their circumstances and place in community, and others who hold on to a sense of rightness with being in community and long for restoration therein, however or whenever that might be.
This gentleman, much like another that I saw a few days later seemed to be recalcitrant towards a real engagement with his surroundings, or at least there seemed to be a dense fog of emotional scarring and intoxication that made it difficult for that re engagement to take place.
The other gentleman I saw in the same situation seemed to be an ex pilgrim, obviously with some severe substance abuse issues, who I first noticed being aggressive with a market cashier as he tried to negotiate the price for something down. I later saw him outside the store with an arrangement of pilgrim identifiers (like his shell necklace) apparently to qualify himself as a current or ex pilgrim and potential recipient of alms from other pilgrims or ship goers.
Where I might normally have stopped, even for someone aggressive like this man, I for some reason did not, and as I passed by, he shreaked out in a raspy Dutch Spanish accent, “yeah f- you too!”
While my first internal reaction was negative to this man’s attitude, in hindsight I reflected on God’s condescension and covenant faithfulness to His people who not only repeatedly sin against Him, but sometimes outright run from, or fight against Him (Samson, Jonah, Paul, etc). Wherever that man was at in his heart, I needed to remember that there is only one good and just Judge, and that I need to do a better job to consistently show the love of Christ, even to those who have no interest or appreciation for it, as the Spirit will work according to His will and God can chose to set His love upon and call back to Him anyone He chooses.
Later that evening Ignacio and I went to the store and bought some salami, bread, a Spanish omlet, and some other items for dinner ($6 euro each) and ended up meeting and sharing with four new friends on the camino, Pilar, Antonio, Daniel, and Raul.
Daniel and Raul are two young men studying physics at university level and who are doing the camino together. It with many of the young people on the camino it has been enriching to be reminded of my youth, sense of wonder and idealism, lack of experience and wisdom, and lack of inhibitions and overflowing hopes that I recall having in my earlier years.
Different than many youngsters their age on the camino, however, they had more of an innocence and idealism about them that made them such a delight to be around. Just being reminded what it is like to see the world with fresh and untainted eyes, and also perhaps, unlike what it seems for many of the youth on the camino, reflecting a measure of love and support they’ve received in their home life, something that I think is going through another wave of deterioration in the last couple hundred years of modern to post modern western culture.
It was enjoyable to just listen to their observations and questions on life and it’s related matters, to discuss the camino and reasons for doing so, and just generally see their friendship and to consider the richness of this experiences together and the memories that they would eventually share as they moved on to the next phases in life.
They also reminded me of my son, Christian, who is only 9, but is similar in terms of his intellect and idealism and general warm heartedness and positive view of the world and life.
Among other things that evening, we shared our literary perspectives on Don Quijote, my take, for example on the closing scene, being that Sancho mourning over Don Quijote’s disillusionment and death, being modernity’s mourning over, the death of, and expressing its implicit subjacent dependence upon, premodernity, Quijote being the archetypal pre modern man, and Panza being that of the modern man. (I’ll have more to say about this in another blog post).
I shared some other prolific works that they might want to read, like the Decameron, one could say Italy’s 12th century version of the Zombie apocalypse mixed with elements of downtown abbey, and also a definitive work on shaping the modern Italian language.
I recall at one point giving them the advice not to confuse wisdom with worldliness as they gained more experience in the years to come. I implored them o grow in wisdom without compromising their wonder , and to keep the lenses of their heart pure and unclouded with the fog (of sin) that the world tries to pass for wisdom.
It was a good evening and the formation of our little group that would finish te final 108 km of the Camino together.
