icons and rituals

[Donald Schell]

Dear Leonard,

I'll be interested to hear from you again about this after your walking the
Camino:

> But I must say, religions that have icons and rituals scare me.

In a book I mentioned a fair ways upstream here, Studies in Modern
Pilgrimage, the researchers observe that the routine and practical
tools/equipment of the pilgrimage take on the character of rituals and icons
(to use the language you've offered us) over the distance pilgrims walk.
Studying the journals of people who offered them for study, they found the
boots, walking stick, pack, hat, and pilgrim's shell all took on increasing
powerful meaning as the journal keepers walked.  Listening to what the
researchers found, I hear a progress from skepticism ('I suppose the stick
may be useful') to appreciation ('it starts to feel like a friend') to
welcome and indspensable ('I don't know how I would have done some of those
downhills without it'), to philosophical/theological reflections and a sense
of the object's power as a symbol even where it leans against the wall at
home after the Camino.  The last stage of meaning seemed to break into talk
about ultimate values, talking about humility, support, trust, open-ness to
whatever lies ahead from looking at and remembering a piece of wood leaning
in a corner of an ordinary room at home.

I've been on the Camino twice (300 miles the first time and 120 miles the
second) and am going back again this June.  What the researchers described
was quite familiar to me (and also recognizable to my daughter Maria with
whom I walked the first time).  When I had opportunity this November to make
a personal pilgrimage to Ground Zero in Manhattan, be shown around the site
by one of the volunteer chaplains, and offer a word of support and silent
prayer for the construction workers, police, and firemen who were pouring
themselves out there every day, it was instantly evident to me that I wanted
to walk that ground in my "Camino boots."   Less dramatically, I know that
even putting my boots on for a day hike here in California seems different
from simply putting on appropriate walking equipment, richer in some way
because, as I usually explain to myself when I'm putting them on, "I walked
the Camino in these and will again."  They have an iconic quality for me.
And a couple of weeks ago, walking down from a steep ridge in Baja
California without my camino walking stick I felt bereft - it was something
other than thinking it would have been easier to walk down with the stick.

My wilderness back-packing experience is for much shorter trips so I know it
doesn't compare really, and admit that I'm not sure whether that sense of
religious/spiritual meaning in ordinary equipment would emerge with a really
long hike or whether it's actually something about the Camino.   But it
feels as though the objects take on iconic quality because its pilgrimage
rather than simply because of the familiarity and affection of walking the
distance.  In other words, my hunch is that the discovery of sacred objects
and cherished ritual does not show up quite the same way in long distance
backpacking.  I certainly didn't hear it in reading Bill Bryson's account of
walking the Appalachian Trail, though there were other things about his
walking experience that I recognized from my Camino experience, so there do
seem to be ways that a long quiet walk does compare to pilgrimage.

Another thing I noticed on the Camino, thinking of ritual now, was how open
and touched a diverse group of us were alt any gathering for Pilgrims' Mass
at churches along the Camino.  I think we recognize the holiness or some
inescapable sense of grace in the welcome the people along the Camino
extend.  In addition to its explicitly religious dimension, the Pilgrims'
Mass focuses that welcome, especially in the repeated offering of the
blessing, the gift that the local people gather day by day to offer a
constant stream of passing strangers.

There is something more than a long walk happening and whether we bring
explicit Christian faith (and I admit I do), or simply open-heartedness and
willingness to be grateful for the offer of hospitality of a very ancient
devout tradition, something spiritual in the pilgrimage seems to touch many
more people than those who began walking from devotion to St. James or any
reckoning of explicit spiritual benefit from walking the Camino.

All that said, the way you are approaching this makes very good sense.   I
don't mean to try to talk you into something, and I appreciate your 'walk
and see' sort of approach.

love,
donald

love,
donald


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