MCFearnley
Active Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Ponferrada to Santiago (September 2016)
I have been reading many of the threads on this forum and I have sensed that there are certain types of people who look down on those who can only plan a short distance saying that the short-distancers are not really real pilgrims and are doing it just for the sake of an easy Compostela. There are also those who say that the Compostela is "just a piece of paper" and that there is really no value to it.
I am going to be a short-distance pilgrim soon and that "piece of paper" has meaning for me. It is sad to see that there are some who devalue what I am doing. I don't have to justify myself to anyone. I went from non-existent exercise for two and a half years following a bout of depression and anxiety to starting to walk at the end of June this year. 200km will be for me similar to others who do 800. I am unemployed so yeah, I have plenty of time, but the money is extremely tight and had to dig into my retirement funds to do this. This is not a lark, I sensed a call from God to do this to take some time to sort out my path in life.
It would be nice if people would see other pilgrims not as somewhere on a hierarchy, but as fellow travelers on the road of humanity who have their own very personal reasons to go and do whatever distance they can or they are called to do.
Thank goodness that this is not generalized throughout the forum! It is a little depressing, though, for a first timer like myself to encounter this kind of undercurrent. Some may not be aware that they are doing it. I just hope that I will not encounter it on my pilgrimage.
Thanks for letting me have my say.
I am going to be a short-distance pilgrim soon and that "piece of paper" has meaning for me. It is sad to see that there are some who devalue what I am doing. I don't have to justify myself to anyone. I went from non-existent exercise for two and a half years following a bout of depression and anxiety to starting to walk at the end of June this year. 200km will be for me similar to others who do 800. I am unemployed so yeah, I have plenty of time, but the money is extremely tight and had to dig into my retirement funds to do this. This is not a lark, I sensed a call from God to do this to take some time to sort out my path in life.
It would be nice if people would see other pilgrims not as somewhere on a hierarchy, but as fellow travelers on the road of humanity who have their own very personal reasons to go and do whatever distance they can or they are called to do.
Thank goodness that this is not generalized throughout the forum! It is a little depressing, though, for a first timer like myself to encounter this kind of undercurrent. Some may not be aware that they are doing it. I just hope that I will not encounter it on my pilgrimage.
Thanks for letting me have my say.