Pilgrimage or escape?

[CaminoJohn]

NOTE FROM THE MODS: I have merged this thread with another one linking to the same article. I am leaving both links in the thread, because it seems that some people have trouble seeing one or the other depending on where they are logging in from, so I am hoping that at least one link will work for everyone. I have pasted in the second link into this post as well.

http://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=fcc59556-c219-4842-bf9a-997cb110f0d9

Finding peace and harmony at the ‘End of the Earth’

A Spanish town plays host to religious pilgrims, but to some they are 'hippies' and 'troublemakers'

www.latimes.com

 

[Pelegrin]

The article defines the percebes as a "regional delicacy" when they are the most prized seafood in Spain. It seems that they still remain very unknown outside Spain.

 

[Former member 49149]

re percebes...

 

[amancio]

Very interesting article!

Indeed, you alwasy meet people who do not seem to find their way out of the Camino and back into their prior social life, if they had one. I feel sorry for them, and many have mental/social problems, unfortunately

 

[peregrina2000]

That’s the title of this little piece from the LA Times. A camino buddy sent it to me.

If it has already been posted, let me know and I’ll delete it. Not really about the Camino to Fisterra, but very interesting to read that there is a little band of hangers-on who just can’t leave. Nice to know that there are people who are even more addicted to the camino than I am.

http://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=fcc59556-c219-4842-bf9a-997cb110f0d9

 

[Camino Chrissy]

It was posted yesterday, Laurie, but can't remember the thread...yours is easier to read though as it's right here and your linkdoesn't have the ads...my opinion is to leave it as is.

 

[Bradypus]

It was posted yesterday, Laurie, but can't remember the thread...yours is easier to read though as it's right here without clicking on a link with ads...my opinion is to leave it as is.

I think this is the thread. For some reason the link Laurie gives doesn't work for me in the UK but the one in the previous thread does. I assume it is the same article referred to in both.

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/life-for-a-camino-bum.66189/

 

[amancio]

Indeed we have all met people who cannot find the way out of the Camino, they arrive in Santiago, then decide to go to Rome, them back to Santiago, down Via de la Plata, and just in a chain of caminos... after a few months, they are very hard to reinsert in society!

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Indeed I cannot seem to find my way out of the camino. I arrived in Santiago the first time walking, then started on the Del Norte/Primitivo, then returned to the Frances, then chose the Le Puy, next the Portuguese, this spring the remainder of the Norte and on to Muxia, Lires, Finesterre...the only difference is it's taken me 5 years...not 5 months.

 

[Anniesantiago]

Hahahah! This is something I might do...

 

[SYates]

Happily hanging around in Santiago in my case ;-)
BC SY

 

[peregrina2000]

The article defines the percebes as a "regional delicacy" when they are the most prized seafood in Spain. It seems that they still remain very unknown outside Spain.

Not wanting to get this thread too far off topic, but this article on the “percebes industry” is without a doubt the best travel/food/social commentary article I’ve read in years and years, if not ever.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Wow, what an amazing story! When in Muxia I saw a couple of people in a bay below the walkway digging amongst the rocks at low tide. I knew they were "fishing" for something, and I was curious, but didn't know for what. I now think possibly they were searching for percebes. Anyone know for sure?

 

[KinkyOne]

It's a hard work:

But the taste is..., it's just..., well..., it's... AHHHHH!

I also remember a short documentary about tres hermanas from Galicia that was already linked on this forum couple of years ago but I'm too lazy to search for it

 

[VNwalking]

Indeed, you alwasy meet people who do not seem to find their way out of the Camino and back into their prior social life, if they had one. I feel sorry for them, and many have mental/social problems, unfortunately

after a few months, they are very hard to reinsert in society!

Not fitting in anymore is not necessarily a bad thing, because 'society' is not always a worthy thing.
It's a blessing to no longer be a slave to a system based in consumption, or to a shallow social culture of who you are being measured by what you have, how rich or well-known you are, where you live, or what you do.

It's different, to be sure.
But not doing all that is better on a human level, and better for the planet.

It's a challenge to find a way to live in this world, without being sucked back into that. But it can be done. I wonder if some of the 'hangers-on' are simply in the process of finding that new way forward.

Being adducted to the camino is another matter altogether, as is avoiding having to face life as it is 'out there' - as understandable as those two things may be.

 

[rometimed]

Not fitting in anymore is not necessarily a bad thing, because 'society' is not always a worthy thing.
It's a blessing to no longer be a slave to a system based in consumption, or to a shallow social culture of who you are being measured by what you have, how rich or well-known you are, where you live, or what you do.

It's different, to be sure.
But not doing all that is better on a human level, and better for the planet.

It's a challenge to find a way to live in this world, without being sucked back into that. But it can be done. I wonder if some of the 'hangers-on' are simply in the process of finding that new way forward.

Being adducted to the camino is another matter altogether, as is avoiding having to face life as it is 'out there' - as understandable as those two things may be.

What I find interesting is telling people about doing the Camino, the reactions. The saddest thing is when people say "I could never take that much time off." I just don't even fathom that. To me the Camino is my time 'on'.... I just don't get the mindset of traveling only as a source of infinite pleasure.

 

[VNwalking]

I just don't get the mindset of traveling only as a source of infinite pleasure.

Me neither, @rometimed.
Not any more, anyway. After a while being on the hamster wheel of wanting the next pleasant experience got old. So what?
(Life isn't a source of infinite pleasure, either, for that matter. Fotrtunately, the camino is a good teacher of how to roll with the ups and downs...)

 

[rometimed]

Me neither, @rometimed.
Not any more, anyway. After a while being on the hamster wheel of wanting the next pleasant experience got old. So what?
(Life isn't a source of infinite pleasure, either, for that matter. Fotrtunately, the camino is a good teacher of how to roll with the ups and downs...)

It's soooo much more interesting and profound.

It doesn't have to be the Camino at all but it's a solid example.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I tell people when I'm asked that I have, and still do, travel quite extensively to many beautiful places and appreciate them...but walking the caminos are so unique and profound to me. They are in a very special category all their own.

 

[Jay Es]

Life's just one long pilgrimage. It dawned on me as I walked out of Seville last week. Some people make their way as bankers and are still bankers en Camino, some make their way as hippies and are still hippies on Camino. They both struggle to integrate into each others societies.

 

[SYates]

Life's just one long pilgrimage. It dawned on me as I walked out of Seville last week. Some people make their way as bankers and are still bankers en Camino, some make their way as hippies and are still hippies on Camino. They both struggle to integrate into each others societies.

We always take ourselves on the Camino ;-)
BC SY

 

[Tincatinker]

I was born into an itinerant lifestyle. We had no place that was "home" other than the road. Then we got "settled"; then we got placed; then we became grounded.

I've spent my life wandering. Looking for the un-place I came from. Camino feels vaguely like home

 

[Delphinoula]

I call a kindred spirit home. So it can be anywhere on or off. Tinca I know I have been there.
Just look around there are so many living beings that don’t root like trees. My living is like water lilies.
Home was always where my soul could soar and feel as limitless and boundless as the sea.Cant recall the whole poem......
So I find it funny reinserting in society.

 

[Kelly Ann]

Tell me about it. 19 years traveling around the world for me until 2003, and now I'm about to be 58. Still finding it difficult to become and/or adjust to "normal" society.

 

[Jacobus]

Greetings from Canada
After 9 Camino ‘s I still long for the camino feeling. The open road. No one else dictating my activities. The bohemian lifestyle. Not knowing what path, what restaurant, what bed, who you will interact with. That is an exciting life to me and a life I cannot duplicate anywhere else. I will return and keep returning because of this.
Courage
Jim

 

[CaminoJohn]

Indeed we have all met people who cannot find the way out of the Camino, they arrive in Santiago, then decide to go to Rome, them back to Santiago, down Via de la Plata, and just in a chain of caminos... after a few months, they are very hard to reinsert in society!

I hav

That’s the title of this little piece from the LA Times. A camino buddy sent it to me.

If it has already been posted, let me know and I’ll delete it. Not really about the Camino to Fisterra, but very interesting to read that there is a little band of hangers-on who just can’t leave. Nice to know that there are people who are even more addicted to the camino than I am.

e always called them Camino Bums. From way back in 2006 encountered them. Some ha

NOTE FROM THE MODS: I have merged this thread with another one linking to the same article. I am leaving both links in the thread, because it seems that some people have trouble seeing one or the other depending on where they are logging in from, so I am hoping that at least one link will work for everyone. I have pasted in the second link into this post as well.

http://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=fcc59556-c219-4842-bf9a-997cb110f0d9

Finding peace and harmony at the ‘End of the Earth’

A Spanish town plays host to religious pilgrims, but to some they are 'hippies' and 'troublemakers'

www.latimes.com

I have always called them Camino Bums. From way back in 2006 to present I have always encountered them. Some have found a way to give back to the camino and some just take. They all have interesting stories. I posted it in Misc. as it applies to all caminos. I request that it be moved back and my original title reinstated.

 

[David Tallan]

What I find interesting is telling people about doing the Camino, the reactions. The saddest thing is when people say "I could never take that much time off." I just don't even fathom that.

Some people have families to support and jobs that they need to go to in order to do that, jobs that may not permit extended vacations. To not be able to fathom such a life is a privilege indeed.

 

[Opa Theo]

What I find interesting is telling people about doing the Camino, the reactions. The saddest thing is when people say "I could never take that much time off." I just don't even fathom that. To me the Camino is my time 'on'.... I just don't get the mindset of traveling only as a source of infinite pleasure.

I'm 72 years old, retired, a grandfather, fly fisherman and an avid volunteer in teaching fishing skills to disabled military veterans and the disabled students. The maximum time I feel I can disappear is two weeks. I feel needed. I love my obligations. Also, I've always pushed myself and have lots of wear and tear from running marathons, for example. I can not endure a 30 km a day hike. So I opt for a shorter pilgrimage experience with luggage transporting, my own bathroom and a local person to make arrangements and check on my status each day.
Everyone's life is a pilgrimage. The Caminos are routes. A segment of their life's pilgrimage. My experiences walking the last 100 km of the Frances path in October 2018 were some of the most absorbing and spiritual experiences of my life. I urge people to make whatever accommodations they need to enjoy the pilgrim experience.
I judge no one.

 

[Bradypus]

The maximum time I feel I can disappear is two weeks. I feel needed. I love my obligations.

There is a 10 year long gap in my walking history. I adopted a dog from a local rescue centre: three legs, one eye and perhaps half a brain at best. A strange but lovely hound who fixed on me as the centre of his universe and could hardly bear to let me out of his sight. A terrible tie to my home. But one I would not have missed for a moment and whose loss I still feel years after his death. Here on the forum we sometimes suffer from appalling tunnel vision. It is good to be reminded now and again that there are other worlds out there

 

[Camino Chrissy]

What a beautiful story, Bradypus.

 

[Bradypus]

What a beautiful story, Bradypus.

This is in a gilt frame on the wall behind me as I type. A birthday card for me drawn by my daughter in chalk on black paper. Precious.