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Pilgrim Topics Related to all Routes
Life on the Camino - Miscellaneous Topics
Reasons for walking the Camino
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[QUOTE="Br. David, post: 64628, member: 10640"] There does seem to be a hard-wired need, deep within - how it manifests in each individual appears to be moulded by their world view ... so we have naturally 'spiritual' or 'religious' ( is there a difference?) people responding to God's call, to the inner need to connect to that [i]Other[/i]. Then there are those who see it as a way of temporarily leaving the hectic modern life, then there are addicted walkers ... the list is long. Personally I believe that regardless of how it rises or manifests in a person, or how they personally justify it, that it is a deep need to connect with God (or whatever you name that [i]Otherness[/i], that Presence, seen through a glass darkly). The basic question from which all other questions and actions devolve is[i] "Is life meaningful or meaningless?" [/i]If meaningless, just chaos somehow formed into the universe we inhabit then there is no reason for anything, no altruism, no love, no care - no reason even to live ..... but if meaningful then there is purpose and we are necessarily part of something bigger, more knowing ... if so then it is our development within that is important, all else is basically scenery ... and, for me, because I believe that life is meaningful I try to connect to the greater that I am a part of ... a religious will call this God ... and I believe that it is this inbuilt urge/desire, to connect, that is at the root of pilgrimage .. What is clear to me is that no one just steps out of their 'normal' life to spend perhaps a month or so walking as a stranger in a strange land, at some financial and personal cost, without there being a crisis in their life. By crisis I mean perhaps that they have had enough of just living day by day, possibly realised that the consumer gadgets and toys they have worked so hard for so long to acquire and that they judge their life by are merely worthless baubles. Or they find that they loathe their job but don't know what to do, or a partner has left them, or they have a sneaking feeling that their life, the one they spent so many years to build, is meaningless, and they want to find meaning. Or that a loved one is in crisis, a crisis that has removed the safe foundation from their family lives and they hope to heal the breach. .. Sooo .. something big happens in one's life, the apparent 'coincidences' start to appear ... and one goes ... pilgrimage ... and for those who may think of this "no, not at all, I just fancied a long walk" - then I would ask them why they didn't just walk round their local park or countryside. Just my point of view of course :wink: [/QUOTE]
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