[Gocamino] [saintjames] Aftermath

[Rosina]

Hi Bob,
Some very wise, apocryphal,  soul when asked "why do you climb mountains?" replied: "Because they are there".
Why do we extend our life beyond the every day routine? Because we can.
For Christians, I think, the Camino has a very endearing and familiar calling. Jesus said: "Yo soy el Camino, la verdad, y la vida". (I am the Way.....)
Who can resist that call? As long as the body can go, what are pains, physical difficulties and such? There'll be plenty of time later on to rest in peace.
The Camino statistics show the impressive number of pilgrims beyond seventy years of age. I wish some of them would share their feelings and insights in this forum..... or somewhere. Their views would surely alter the all too frequent perception of the Camino pilgrimage as a "trek".
Oh well!
In a few hours I'll be on my way to that other pilgrimage of mine: Richard Wagner's Bayreuh festival.  I often have thought that the best expression, meaning, and inspiration of the Camino pilgrimage can be found in the Wagner operas "Lohengrin" and "Parsifal". But Wagnerian operas, like the Camino itself, are neither a walk in the park nor an ice-cream sundae. But anyone looking for a vivid expression of the pilgrimage's meaning will find it there. 
At any rate, there are many Holy Xacobean Year celebrations in Berlin and in Bamberg (a stone's throw from Bayreuth and the site of Santiago activities in Germany) and I will let you know about things of interest.
Meanwhile, Auf later!
Hugs! 
Rosina
-----Original Message-----
From: rspenger rspenger at earthlink.net


 

It took a couple of months of fumbling around with the details, but the travel insurance finally came through with the cost of my expensive early return. This gave me the excuse to make another attempt at the Arles route to try to make up for the fiasco last spring.

Some folks might well ask, “Why on earth do you take these trips?” It’s an expensive, irresponsible, non-productive self-indulgence. It is certainly very physically taxing for this old bag of bones. On the trip from Condom in the fall of 2008, I had to cut it short at Sarria, when my knee called it quits with just a little over 100km left to go. It took me about 3 months, and a series of hyaluronic acid injections in my knee, to recover from that one. At the time I was convinced that it was the last one, but I was compelled to return the next spring to complete it and go on to Fisterra as well. I have jokingly called it an addiction – obsessive/compulsive behavior, in a sort of phony self-deprecation, but there is some truth to it. However, on reflection I think that it is a matter of meeting challenges, which are many and varied. Obviously, I have sometimes failed to meet them, but I am then left with the feeling that I need to go back and make another try at it. Some would say that this old coot is just wacko, which is the way that some of my friends felt when I took off on that first trip 10 years ago. But I am sure that there are many members of the four camino forums that can understand the way I feel.