Books Motivations, and the Camino

[Maria Schell]

I am watching this conversation around the McClain and Cohelo books and feel
compelled to contribute.  I have read both while working on my own book
about the Camino.  Like some on this list I found their books unsatisfying.
This served the writing of my book as it made me realize that I did have
some to contribute to the literature of the Camino.  What I found difficult
about these books was their constant return to the mystical and
fictionalized world.  Particularly in Cohelo's book I found the spiritual
discoveries new-agey and fabricated.
   But this mostly had to do with my own experience of the Camino.  For me
my spiritual discover was deeply rooted in the mundane aspects of the
Camino.  Finding community in a room full of sleeping tired pilgrims, the
spiritual struggle of pain the miracle of healing, the profound intimacy of
strangers who have the same goal.   All of these realizations came to me
during the pilgrimage and I felt that true religious experience was
available to me in very small everyday things and tiny personal
interactions.  The aforementioned books had none of that and so were of
little interest to me.  But that was MY experience of the Camino.  As has
been noted often on this list the Camino is deeply personal and I met many
people on the road who loved McClain and Cohelo and who would not have found
the Camino had it not been for reading them.   For this reason I value these
books and refuse to dismiss their importance although I personally have no
taste for them.
Maria
--
Maria Schell
Camino Pilgrim 98
www.caminopilgrim.net