pre-Camino and cookie rocks!

[Sally Haden]

Hi Glenn and Galen,

I tracked back to find what you said Glenn a little while ago, because I was
beginning to wonder what it was about my thoughts that prompted someone to
compare them with Shirley McLaine's book.  I haven't read this book but I
did check a handful of reviews on Amazon and from what I saw, indeed it is
apparently an 'interesting' story.... depending on your interest.  Which I
say with dispassion.

>         I think that what Sally was saying, and I agree with, is that
>there are many ways of perceiving the world around us if we allow ourselves
>to be open to them.  I once was told that "We know more than we
>understand."  What we understand as real is what we perceive with our 5
>senses, but we know that there is more out there than that.

Each unto their own thing.  If there are people who want to think about
Atlantis while they are walking the Camino, fine.  Others will be thinking
about the Cross, or about the next albergue and sleep.  Out of the multitude
of humanity will come a multitude of different ways of writing books about
the Camino.  Personally Altantis does nothing for me, but that's me.  I know
very intelligent people who think it is important.

Galen, your "dry question" (your wording) is a very valid one, a sincere one
I think.  But also, Galen, I think it is okay for people to write whatever
books they want.  Some people will like and understand Shirley, her thoughts
will have meaning for some people, people who like it a bit starry.  Clearly
they do, because it sells well.  You might not relate to those thoughts but
she is not obliged to try to explain them to you!!  Others will relate to
them and that's enough for them.

I suggested to you at one point Galen (admittedly a little 'mystically'),
that if you want to know, go back and see what the rocks have to tell you.
Maybe I can clarify that a bit.  When I was at school I loved geography.  I
am not so sure how geography is taught these days, but when I learned it
way-back-when, it was quite a wide-sweeping discipline, including things
like land-usage, history, economy, agriculture as well as the basics of
topography, soils, hills and rivers and suchlike. I think this sort of
knowledge can be very useful in your kind of inquiry.

Let me give an example I know about.  When I was living in Donegal I came
upon a Bronze Age tomb on the top of a hill which overlooked a wide sweep of
the landscape of Northern Ireland and Donegal.  I was very curious to know
more about who was buried up there, what sort of person and why, why his/her
people would want to buy thier chief or warrior or whatever up there, and
began trying to learn some archaeology and to ask some questions.  Although
I learned a lot from books and people, in the end I felt I understood more
about it when I had spent a morning climbing fences and crossing bogs,
struggling through gorse and across cow fields, to sit on the site top
itself and look out.  There I could use my imagination a little, or my
intuition, in order to warm up all the facts and get a feel for the truth.
I could let my eye wander along the river, over to the far hills, across to
the coast....feel the wind and watch the sun's movements.  Then a kind of
synthesis takes place, and you feel in tune with what you are contemplating.

I don't think this is mystical.  I think it is fairly logical and precise.
Certainly it was very rewarding.  I don't have any solid facts I can prove,
but I do have a grounded basis for further research.  That's what I was
trying to say when I said to you, go and see what the stones say to you.
Maybe by stones I meant the landscape, the physical experience, the
earth.....

I think knowledge is a whole kind of thing, and the facts are all there, the
knowledge is only a short step away from us.  We need a bunch of different
approaches, hard facts, research, calculation, questions, imagination,
sensitivity, putting ourselves - even - into the situation..... plus the
element which has no substitute, spending time in the place. Sitting on the
rocks. Looking at the path, walking it foot by foot, as you did.  Finding
out from being there.

But in addition to my suggestions, I have been asking a Spanish friend of
mine who has an interest in archaeology and who lives in Galicia.  I am
going to paste his suggestions into another message....

Sally

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