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A Quote

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AJ

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I came across this yesterday and thought it a refreshing change from definitions which focus on distance walked, pack carried, type of accommodation, hair shirts etc.

"The difference between pilgrim and tourist is the intention of attention, the quality of the curiosity"

Phil Cousineau The Art of Pilgrimage
 
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And where does a "walker" fit in? Would I be a tourist if I walk a camino and am not spiritualy or religiously motivated?
 
Does it matter a jot if you are a tourist or a pilgrim when walking the Camino? Surely we all walk for reasons of our own, reasons that are valid to us and therefore the label used to describe us (tourist or pilgrim) is irrelevant. Our spiritual, religious or secular journey is our own business and not that of anyone else. IMO labels are not helpful. Just do your own thing, apply your own label to yourself and allow others to do the same.
Aidan
 
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Antonius Vaessen said:
And where does a "walker" fit in? Would I be a tourist if I walk a camino and am not spiritualy or religiously motivated?
Click to expand...
This is always an interesting question. If you take the UNWTO definitions (here) almost every pilgrim would qualify to be counted as a tourist, whether on foot, bicycle or on horseback. Unfortunately, many people here seem to use the word tourist in some pejorative sense, as if tourism and being a tourist is a somewhat less dignified or less worthy pursuit than undertaking a pilgrimage. This is just nonsense, but nonetheless there is not a lot that can be done to overcome this prejudice when it appears to have become deeply ingrained in some people feeling good about being pilgrims, and needing to distinguish themselves from other classes of travellers.
 
Oh please, not another thread on the class thing. Lets just do our own thing, life's to short to worry about whether someone is a pilgrim or a tourist, I'll be whatever you want to call me and in some cases it will not be either of the two.
 
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Waka said:
Oh please, not another thread on the class thing.
Click to expand...

The class thing has been raging since the dawn of mankind, I suspect. Even Quintus Horatius Flaccus, the Roman poet, had something to say about the Tourist or Traveller question. He wrote: 'Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt.'

This translates as 'Those who hurry across the sea change the sky [upon them], not their souls or state of mind.' This is from over 2000 years ago, and we seem to be still at it.
 
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Happy New Year everyone. It's only the fifth day of 2017 and we already have a new thread on a subject always fated to be locked by moderators. For you long-term members of the forum who have read more of these discussions than they care to recall, is this early posting the equivalent of the first cuckoo of spring?
 
SEB said:
the first cuckoo of spring?
Click to expand...
I think the cuckoo might bring a little spark of joy to my (cold, hard moderator's) heart whereas all contenders for the first locked thread of 2017 bring me as much happiness as a tax inspection.

Thanks @dougfitz for some enlightening definitions. I spent my career in Audit and still never learnt to speak Lingua Economista.

Those of us who walk the Ways are all things to ourselves and to all others too. Members are, unnecessarily, reminded to play nicely and be respectful of others delusions.

I wish a happy, peaceful, prosperous and meaningful New Year to you all - whatever label you wear or get stuck with
 
SEB said:
is this early posting the equivalent of the first cuckoo of spring?
Click to expand...

Well now SEB, because we as Camino lovers on this here forum (birds of a feather flock together) always react to the age-old Tourist vs Traveller debate like a cat set among the pigeons doesn't mean we live in cloud cuckoo land.
It just means that we're eagle-eyed when it comes to "things Camino", only to find that it is usually a wild goose chase. But no harm done, like water off a duck’s back. It's not like we're giving someone the bird.
 
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Wild goose, cuckoos, duck's backs , pidgeons ,eagle eyes, wow Purky where did all those birds come from so suddenly! I was just trying to figure out Tincatinker's cold hard heart ? Has he got one ?
 
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pilgrim b said:
Purky, where did all those birds come from so suddenly!
Click to expand...

I was hoping to give a bird's eye view of the matter at hand and, at the same time, provide a little airy humor. Kill two birds with one stone, if you will
 
Purky said:
I was hoping to give a bird's eye view of the matter at hand and, at the same time, provide a little airy humor. Kill two birds with one stone, if you will
Click to expand...

I'm still figuring out if Tincatinker, "has a heart" ?
 
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Rick of Rick and Peg said:
You could be a traveller.

Tourists Vs Travellers: 12 Differences Revealed In Minimalistic Illustrations
http://www.demilked.com/illustration-differences-traveler-tourist-holidify/
Click to expand...

Ah ha ha,

I think that link was kind of funny. I scored 50-50% in the "Tourist or Traveller" department, so I'm not sure what I am! :O) Gosh, do I really need to go skydiving (or whatever that picture was) to be a traveller???? I'll never be a good pilgrim...! :OD

/Bad Pilgrim
 
pilgrim b said:
I'm still figuring out if Tincatinker, "has a heart" ?
Click to expand...

If you are referring to Songs to Scream at the Sun, I had to google that one. Talk about not as delicate as a bird song, holy moly...
 
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Tincatinker said:
Thanks @dougfitz for some enlightening definitions. I spent my career in Audit and still never learnt to speak Lingua Economista.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, for those in the bureaucratic counting game, the largest group of travellers in the world today would appear to be the 100s of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict and oppression.
 
Rick of Rick and Peg said:
You could be a traveller.

Tourists Vs Travellers: 12 Differences Revealed In Minimalistic Illustrations
http://www.demilked.com/illustration-differences-traveler-tourist-holidify/
Click to expand...
So now we have pilgrims, tourigrinos, bicigrinos and travelgrinos.

I wonder what the column for "pilgrim" would look like....

Camera: none
Taxi vs climbing up a mountain with back pack: add walking poles and instead of mountain show a loooooong road ahead.
Packing: remove camera and lenses and add first aid kits for feet and safety pins for hanging laundry.
Arrows: a spray painted yellow arrow.
Sleeping arrangements: bunk beds in a dorm
People: a few people, all in a row, but one in front of the other, with some distance in between.
Bed again: bunks again
Waht we think of: cafe con leche, or perhaps St-James. At least the cathedral if not the Saint.
Transport: feet
Tshirt or bouddihist pryer flags as souvenirs: a Camino patch with an arrow, or a pin.
Highway or dots on the ground: the topography of the hill after the Alto del Perdon.


 
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Kanga said:
It is not the group we identify with that matters, it is how we behave.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. Pilgrim is not a noun, it's a verb.
 

Just walk or trek or crawl on your knees.
 
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Philip347 said:
Peregrinate would be the verb. Pilgrim is the noun.
Click to expand...

In a grammatical sense, yes. I just tried to be a bit (too?) clever to convey my view that 'pilgrim' is not so much what you are, it is what you do.
 
Purky said:
In a grammatical sense, yes. I just tried to be a bit (too?) clever to convey my view that 'pilgrim' is not so much what you are, it is what you do.
Click to expand...

Too clever would be in keeping with the primary message in this thread:

"The difference between pilgrim and tourist is the intention of attention, the quality of the curiosity"

which is, to a native speaker, pretentious claptrap, however well intentioned.

I took your point, nonetheless.
 
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Sunday morning in Oporto. I lost my helping arrows and asked two women, waiting in front of a still locked church, which would be the right way to go. They looked at me and asked: tourist? Me: no, peregrino. Then one of the two gave herself a helping attitude and pointed in the right direction. Her body language showed me she would not have helped me in case there was a tourist in my body.
 
Rick of Rick and Peg said:
“To be is to do”—Socrates.
“To do is to be”—Jean-Paul Sartre.
“Do be do be do”—Frank Sinatra.


Sorry. Not real. See http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/09/16/do-be-do/
Click to expand...
Reality can be good enough. There are lots of those, all fascinating, some dangerous. Actuality can get pretty tedious. Trouble is it always gets filtered through one of billions of realities.

That's my reality and I'm sticking to it.
 
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I recently searched for a quotation for someone who had only a few pieces of it. What I found seems appropriate to post here.

Marcel Proust: "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
 
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Rick of Rick and Peg said:
I recently searched for a quotation for someone who had only a few pieces of it. What I found seems appropriate to post here.

Marcel Proust: "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
Click to expand...

The Proust quote rang a bell, but faintly and it took me a while to place it. I finally found it. Also a quote, from G.K. Chesterton, with the same sort of outlook on the matter: “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.”
 
They've all been at it. 19C-20C Philosopherits & Poesists _

"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." From the writings of that well known anagram: T S Eliot

If I got back home and felt surprised I would either be worried about my alcohol intake or my wife's sense of humour
 
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