[Gocamino] More books

[Rosina]

Hi,
The article appeared in something called "McLeans.Ca" and it was written by Jane Christmas.
Regards,
Rosina









-----Original Message-----
From: pagett11 <cpagett at cox.net>
To: GoCamino <GoCamino at oakapple.net>; Rosina <blaroli at aol.com>
Cc: saintjames <saintjames at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sat, Dec 18, 2010 2:17 am
Subject: Re: [Gocamino] More books


Hi Rosina - Can you tell us who wrote the article? Cherie Pagett
D: I couldn't finish Coehlo's book either!
---- Original Message ----- 
rom: "Rosina" <blaroli at aol.com>
o: <GoCamino at oakapple.net>
c: <saintjames at yahoogroups.com>
ent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 9:38 PM
ubject: [Gocamino] More books


 Hello you all,
 I, myself, do not understand why so very many pilgrims feel compelled to 
 write about their pilgrimage.  Doing so minimizes and obscures what in my 
 perception is the most valuable benefit of the pilgrimage: the journey 
 from the outside oneself, (too involved with the busy-ness of the world 
 all around, and with the incessant claims of life and of others,) to the 
 inside oneself:  silently, quietly, un demandingly in the depth of 
 awareness , and, theretofore, hardly noticed, but nevertheless the pillar 
 of the soul.   It seems to me that such intensely personal journey by 
 necessity requires silent intimacy and, consequently, the most punctilious 
 privacy.
 Kathy Gower explained to me one time,  when I told her of my individual 
 dislike of such talk-show-like pouring out of Camino experiences in books, 
 that some pilgrims are so overwhelmed by their Camino feelings that their 
 "cup runneth over" onto books. That sounds sensible.
 But I no longer  read personal Camino accounts (with the notable exception 
 of the book written by the German TV personality which was different and 
 extremely witty and well written).
 Perhaps the fact that, save for Jane Austen and the classics, I haven't 
 read any fiction books for many a decade,  may color my reading choices, 
 and, frankly, some of those "true" Camino accounts that I tried to read 
 years ago seemed anything but.  Remember Coehlo's book? (couldn't finish 
 it), and Shirley McLaine's? and on and on.
 But, my friends, as the country people have it: "different strokes for 
 different folks".
 And, so, here is an article about three new Camino-related books available 
 in English.
 Hugs!
 Rosina


 -------
 Recent research from the University of Innsbruck in Austria revealed that 
 Westerners no longer give a fig about whether their lives have meaning. 
 Tell that to the more than 400,000 people who trod the Camino de Santiago 
 de Compostela (literally, the Way of St. James in the Field of Stars) in 
 the last few years.
 Modern-day quests usually begin with the universal complaint: “How can I 
 escape the insanity of my life?” Before you know it you’re trolling the 
 aisles of Mountain Equipment Co-op convincing yourself you’ll be perfectly 
 comfortable hiking through a country you’ve never visited and whose 
 language you don’t speak.
 Walking Spain’s ancient 800-km pilgrim’s route with the barest of 
 necessities has become a popular New Year’s resolution. It’s not for 
 wimps, but many a wimp (I am one of them) has been known to hike the 
 entire thing. There are steep hills aplenty—more than you can shake a 
 walking stick at. The trail ends at the Catedral de Santiago de 
 Compostela, where it is said that the bones of Christ’s apostle James 
 (a.k.a. Santiago) are buried. As legions of pilgrims will attest, the 
 Camino is a life-altering experience that resonates years and decades 
 after you’ve pried your hiking boots from your hot, blistered feet.

 Three recent books tackle the spiritual and emotional challenges that 
 accompany a journey of some consequence.
 An unlikely Australian duo—a man in his fifties and a woman in her 
 twenties—take on the Camino in The Year We Seized the Day. They aren’t 
 romantically involved; in fact they barely know one another, having met 
 briefly at a writers’ festival. He’s a travel writer looking for a book 
 subject; she’s a confidence-lacking writer trying to improve her literary 
 prospects by riding on his coattails. Beneath the intense glare of the 
 Spanish sun in July (an utterly mad time to do the pilgrimage, by the 
 way), each begins to come clean about the reasons that have brought them 
 to the Camino. Wavering between the visceral (“I am hit by a wave of 
 loneliness so intense, I almost double over as if kicked in the balls”) 
 and the humorous (“We are edging along a cliff face, there is a sheer drop 
 on one side, a stumble will see her over the edge and my workload for the 
 book immediately double”), we gradually discover a truism of Camino 
 pilgrims: the person you perceived to be the strongest turns out to be 
 weighted down with weakness, while the one you thought was a lightweight 
 shows surprising strength and resilience.
 Julie Kirkpatrick discovers her own truth in a much different way in The 
 Camino Letters. Before setting out with her 17-year-old daughter, 
 Kirkpatrick asked 26 friends to give her a task a day (she figures the 
 Camino will take 26 days to walk). She receives orders that range from the 
 tough love (to ask herself why she continually falls for people she knows 
 will hurt her) to the banal (to list five things for which she’s 
 grateful). Kirkpatrick’s introspective responses, delivered in the form of 
 letters to the day’s taskmaster, are personal and raw as she ruminates on 
 family, bereavement, and the stress of the elusive work-life balance.
 The Miracle Chase has nothing to do with the Camino but everything to do 
 with miracles, which, incidentally, abound on the Camino. In this case, 
 three American women, each of whom has experienced a miracle, decide to 
 launch a collective quest into miracles. These are smart, ordinary 
 gals—they could be your neighbours—armed with not much beyond a healthy 
 dose of skepticism and a ton of curiosity. Over a 10-year span, they 
 research the history of miracles, interview miracle recipients, debate the 
 validity of miracles, review the scientific evidence, and try to come up 
 with a modern definition. Their own miracles are vastly different but 
 equally harrowing: one of the women recounts her escape from serial killer 
 Ted Bundy; another is diagnosed with breast cancer in the midst of the 
 trio’s miracle chase; the third one’s life changes when

 her infant daughter is abused by a babysitter. Told with wisdom and 
 humour, The Miracle Chase is as much about miracles as it is about the 
 power of friendship and of once-in-a-lifetime journeys, minus the steep 
 hills
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