Fiction

[Felipe Sanchez]

Before trekking from Saint Jean to Santiago in May and June of last year, I read CAMINO by S.M.  Along the route I spoke with hospitaleros about her. Their accounts are summarized here:  she received sellos at the refugios but stayed in hotels;  her pack was so small as to be risible;  she was accompanied by body-guards;  she was invariably well dressed, occasionally with ostentation, clean, and not trail-ridden.  In the town of Acebo I spoke with the only hospitalero that supported her claim that she had traversed the entire Camino.  He adamantly affirmed that she had spent seven days in mediation there and he had witnessed this.  If I remember correctly her book stated that she had done the entire walk in thirty days.  If we allow seven days for meditation one must conclude that she accomplished the entire trek in 23 days.  Unbelievable!  Similar reports were shared with me about Cohelo whose work, according to the many Brasileros on the trail, sold about forty million copies.  Based on my conversations, then, I must allege that both authors are long on imagination and short on practice and veracity.  I walk my own trail so the actions of most others in no ways impinges on the integrity of my being but I find the inconsistencies inherent in the two accounts aforementioned interesting and rather representative of the "new age."  The respect I feel for the experience I perceived while on the Camino prohibits my profanation of the experience by hyperbole or fabrication.  Apparently, my attitude and reaction are unique. 
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