pack weigh; Shells and staffs

[Donald Schell]

Following on Linda's request I consolidated these two notes into one before
sending:

Dear Caroline and all,

Yes, it's fascinating remembering how much worry and fuss I put into details
ahead of walking in 1998 and how different (neurotic as I can be) this
preparation feels.  And a loud amen to this:

> What impressed me the most
> about the camino was watching people slowly lose their connection to the
> material world and make a new more profound connection with the world of
> nature, other human beings and that elusive thing we call spirit.

love,
donald

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Dear Robin,

> Shells? I thought that the shell was a token of having been to Compostela so
> that you would be recognised as a pilgrim in your return (no cheap filght in
> medieval times!). Has it become a club badge?


What you write is what I've heard about the medieval practice, and your
question also reflects what I observed in 1998 - most pilgrims, it seemed,
identified themselves with a shell even as they were on their way to
Santiago, though it didn't feel like a 'club badge,' but something humbler
and more open-hearted.  As I mentioned before my daughter and I purchased
pilgrim shells in Estella, several days out from St. Jean.  We get them in a
stationer that had shells for sale in the window, and the shopkeeper
obviously enjoyed his part in equipping us or marking us as pilgrims.  It
touched him in some way to be a part of our pilgrimage.  He asked a lot
about our experience to date.  His 'buen camino' seemed loving.  To me the
shell didn't feel like a club badge so much as a useful and welcomed
identifier in a vibrant local culture that saw pilgrims as neither strangers
nor tourists, but a continuously passing blessing with different faces.
Many of the local people had, in fact, walked the pilgrimage themselves and
offered their encouragement with a sense of solidarity.  Asking one Spaniard
about the great variety of 'reasons' people seemed to have for walking, she
dismissed it with a wave of the hand and 'no importa.'  Pilgrims, she said,
those who have walked and live along the way, those who are walking, anyone
who steps on the Camino and begins form a single 'hermanidad.'  The image
brother/sisterhood works.  It feels much more like family than club.

love,
donald

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