Sad events in Galicia.

[Rosina Lila]

Douglas,
Your message sounds like the anachronistic "white man's burden".
As to the so called 'moral superiority' you claim, dispassionate observers
will tell you that it has been lost, if it ever existed, with the setting out
to take over a country by brute force and calling killing people "collateral
damage". Euphemisms and excuses work for a time, as Goebbels showed in world
war II days, but not for long.
If you read Abraham Lincoln's biography you will see that he repeatedly
warned about the perils of a country believing its own propaganda.
The beauty of the Camino is that it brings people of different countries
together and it encourages us to see ourselves in human terms as we are,
blisters, tiredness and all: pretty much  alike regardless of where we may be
from or what language we may speak, all of us with a fairly short span of
time on this earth and with the knowledge that we shall die.
I am on my way to Spain for Holy Week, confident that the Spaniards, being
the warmhearted, friendly  people that they are will not show their anger at
the acts of our government by showing hostility against us individually;
after all, 92% of them are angry at their own government.
On another note, I have been invited to the Universal Confraternities reunion
in Santiago for the Jacobean Holy Year. Next June I'll walk the Camino, for
the fourth time, but only from O Cebreiro since I haven't fully recovered
from the serious injuries that I sustained last June.
The Santiago Choir will be appearing in Granada next week and will sing a
series of Jacobean medieval chants.  I am going to try my darnest to go.
There is also a new facility for horseback riding pilgrims whereby a  horse
may be rented at one point on the Camino further than one hundred kilometers
from Santiago to be returned in Santiago itself. Let me know if you are
interested and I'll provide the details.
Meanwhile, let us pray for Peace on Earth.
Warm regards,
Rosina