jimkaszynski
RIP 2014
- Time of past OR future Camino
- First step June 1st 2013
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jimkaszynski said:If I remember right St. James did the same thing?
You are probably correct, but I don't think that what you describe of yourself indicates that you are in need. You would be imposing on others under false pretences to rely on other's generosity towards the needy when you don't appear to be so. Having seen both mendicant pilgrims and ponces on the Camino Frances when I walked, I think you risk being classified as the latter.jimkaszynski said:I really believe most people in their heart are willing to help another in need!
sillydoll said:OK - . I think you are experimenting with human nature......
I think I would be very uncomfortable if I thought someone was testing me by asking me to pay for food when I knew that they had money aplenty waiting for them in Santiago!
RENSHAW said:I am currently writing from Castrojeriz which is 40km outside Burgos. On the main route through town is a Bar called ´La Taberna´
Salvation in Spain
A blizzard of apple blossoms whirled around me, the sun warmed the dew away, a solitary cow munched away beside me and I started to cry. An hour earlier I had checked my bank balance: 14 cents. Three euros in my pocket, and 14 cents in my account. I had no credit card and it was the Saturday before a public holiday in the United States so it would be three days until frantic phone calls to family stateside would lead to money in my bank.
I was a pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago in Bierzo, in northern Spain. I’d been walking the ancient path for three weeks, frugally spending along the way, but a series of travel mishaps had seriously compromised my financial situation. I had $1,000 worth of technology and hiking equipment, yet no money for anything more than a few apples, yogurt and bread.
Then Sharon appeared, a Canadian pilgrim with whom I’d walked a few days earlier. She looked at me, dropped her pack, and asked what was wrong. I fessed up to my embarrassing situation and she handed me 20 euros. “Don’t even think about paying me back,” she called out as she walked down the road.
Twenty euros! That would be several days of food. And I could always volunteer to clean the bathrooms at the pilgrim hostels along the way in exchange for a bunk. I stood up and started down the Camino, feeling cautiously hopeful.
After several hours of walking, I arrived at Villafranca del Bierzo, a town nestled in a deep valley surrounded by vineyards. The pilgrims’ hostel, Phoenix, was constructed on the same ground that held a hostel for pilgrims when the pilgrimage was in its heyday, around A.D. 1000. I ventured up to the old man with calming blue eyes and a soulful presence that told me he belonged there. I gushed my story, explaining that I had only 20 euros to last me for three days, and if I could possibly stay and do chores instead of pay?
He smiled at me, took me in his arms, and said, in Spanish, “Daughter, you don’t need to pay to stay in your own home.”
ANJULI GRANTHAM
Columbia, S.C
jimkaszynski said:One thing I do want to clear up is at no time will I be walking under false pretenses. Everyone I talk to will know what I am doing. . . . . . . . .
Someone said I am running an experiment on my life; so true but not at the expense of others. Because they have a choice on how they feel. One of my greatest life lessons has been, I do not have the power to make someone feel good or bad. That is their choice. What I can do is share my life’s mistakes with another and only then; they can choose to change.
Terrri said:The tourists are the ones helping Spain's economy not the pilgrims.
One thing I do want to clear up is at no time will I be walking under false pretenses. Everyone I talk to will know what I am doing.
Terrri said:The tourists are the ones helping Spain's economy not the pilgrims.
Stephen Nicholls said:There are MANY Spanish folk who rely on pilgrims for a large proportion of their income. Be generous. ]
What was that? Is that what they had before Compeed? Buen Camino!newfydog said:As it has been since the days of Godescalc.
kingscrown2014 said:Hi Jim,
( who walkes long distance with bluejeans on ?)
And here is what you said elsewhere:jimkaszynski said:So I am asking myself, do I have the humility to ask another person “Do you have any food to spare?”
Here is what you said on this forum:All the questions I ever had about life were answered!
Here is what you said elsewhere:jimkaszynski said:I will be camping out and walking alone for the 484-miles.
Here is what you said on this forum:Now, how about the rest of the group who is going on this trek? For the ones who want to do the whole trip, we will take the first step together on June 1st, 2013.
Here is what you said elsewhere:jimkaszynski said:I will not ask for money only food.
The conundrum is how will you pay for the internet cafe. You are not begging for money, and the internet doesn't seem to me to be food. How will that work?I will try to send out a daily narrative with photos. That’s if I can find an internet cafe on the way, which should not be a problem.
I agree with your view! I just completed the Camino Frances this week. During my journey, we had a person who was "doing the Camino" on 'no' money. Word spread up and down the Camino about this fellow...and people were very put-off by him. I saw him enter the plaza, looking like the flea bag he is, almost strutting as he entered. This is not, I believe, the general attitude of a pilgrim who has just completed the Camino.amancio said:while your idea may sound very romantic - in the 19th Century sense of the word "romantic", I can foresee you getting in trouble.
normally, you will keep bumping into the same people all the time. The first time, you might be lucky to get help. Maybe even the second time. But the third time, they are just going to think you are a "sponge" (gorrón in Spanish) and will most likely be avoiding you like a pest.
That is my view.
I know some of you thinking “This guy is crazy,”
do I have the humility to ask another person “Do you have any food to spare?”
:? :?:falcon269 said:A Camino to test others instead of yourself, simply follows the biblical admonition to "judge, lest he not be judged."
evanlow said:Hi Jim,
I concur with Sil.
Spain is in a recession. They can use your money, especially it appears that you are able to afford it. It may not be much since you probably spend 20-30 euros a day but in the spirit for what the Camino gives to all pilgrims, this is the least we could do to gives thanks.
The other Jim (James) will appreciate that too!
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From another pilgrim not too far away from you in Singapore.
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That is my view as well! Jim's approach is artificial as he is not really in need of any support and is simply opting to appear so. I would give him short shrift on the camino.Pieces said:personally I find there are causes more worthy of paying forward and that even using the term in relation to this topic is a misunderstanding of the concept it refers to
PingHansen said:I can admire those who try for reasons of faith, whether as a "penance" or because they lack the funds to pay for it.
A person who does it for the heck of it, I'd call a leech. And not only that, but by abusing the goodwill of persons along the route, he may be ruining it for those who need it.
Good luck and know that every one of us will do our pilgrimage our own way. I love that about the camino!To all of this I would add one observation, and wonder if others have noticed the same. While visiting albergues for the app this summer the one thing I noticed more than ever was that they [the hospitaleros] almost always seemed more exhausted than ever before. Perhaps the work of being a full time hospitalero has caught up to the many of the private albergue owners, perhaps it is the crunch of the Spanish economy which has brought ever more pilgrims with ever less money. Perhaps it is the addition of so much competition in an already competitive market. I don't know for certain, but it is worth keeping in mind that they too are part of the human structure of the camino, and deserve an equal portion of the kindness that we share with one another. It is not an easy job to sustain when things get tough.
Rebekah Scott said:But more and more people are using the Camino as a stage (and fellow pilgs as a captive audience) for attention-seeking behavior and out-and-out stunts.
...
Simply walking or biking the Way is not enough. They have to do it on rollerskates, or a camel or a Segway or unicycle or better/stronger/faster/poorer than anyone ever did before. They´ve gotta make themselves stand out from the crowd and get noticed. These are "stunt caminos."
Rebekah Scott said:Our house is the only donativo place for pilgrims for many kilometers, so mendicants are a large portion of our "clientele." (we have an Argentinian man here this very day, he´s walked from Taizé in France with only 30 Euro in his pocket. A Canadian pilgrim, early on, gave this stranger his charge card, just in case of emergency. He hasn´t used it yet!)
There is beautiful generosity out there, and plenty of people pushing themselve to new limits. It is not so bad, coming here to overcome your deep fears, etc. etc. But more and more people are using the Camino as a stage (and fellow pilgs as a captive audience) for attention-seeking behavior and out-and-out stunts.
Simply walking or biking the Way is not enough. They have to do it on rollerskates, or a camel or a Segway or unicycle or better/stronger/faster/poorer than anyone ever did before. They´ve gotta make themselves stand out from the crowd and get noticed. These are "stunt caminos." The pilg often says he is only doing this to help a charity, or to make some deeply meaningful point. Supposedly he is proving something to himself, but evidently he has something to prove to everybody.
I have seen several well-off people experimenting with poverty on the camino -- a lovely, wealthy Brazilian girl on my 2001 camino showed herself she could get along with nothing, and charmed her way down the camino. Two French nuns walked without money two years ago, counting on fellow religious to keep them going. They ended up sleeping in vineyards and garages when local generosity didn´t stretch far enough.
These ladies did not announce what they were doing to a group of online strangers before they left, stirring up the pot with "wow, ain´t I crazy!" kind of comments. They did not ask for food and shelter while carrying a video camera, so they could broadcast themselves from the nearest café. It is the heroic "wowie zowie I am the first one!" kind of announcement that puts this "social experiment" into the Stunt Camino category.
I hope the camino is so overwhelmingly generous to the OP he can set aside his camera and his "experiment" pose and just walk in quietness and peace, and see how providence goes way beyond money, food, shelter, and games.
We're all getting it out of our system though, Falcon, and as you know these threads last for years. Any future pilgrims considering a similar approach may find the thread useful.falcon269 said:Jim has not dropped by since the 20th, so more comment and advice may not interest him.
Tyrrek, I did a quick count, and I think that the disapproval is far more widespread than just others from the United States. Perhaps it speaks to a more universal dislike of both the stunning self-aggrandisement and what clearly would be taking advantage of the generous spirit of both fellow pilgrims and the local people we know support genuinely poor pilgrims.tyrrek said:Many other American pilgrims seem to disapprove of Jim's approach. Is this a cultural thing about paying your way, or a sense of embarrassment that an American would be wandering round a cash-strapped European country begging for food
daesdaemar said:With respect, several things come to mind:
It sounds as if you can afford to pay your way. Is it really right to seek the charity of others if you really don't need it? Perhaps what people give to you may not go to someone who "really" needs it.
Priscillian said:Jim:
I heartily admire what you are attempting to do. Why? Because giving others the opportunity to help others is one of the greatest gifts we can bestow! (Forum members if you haven't watched Pay It Forward then I urge you to do so.)
I haven't read all the posts here. I don't need to.
You will be welcome here for a few days when you finish your Camino (I'll be putting you to work though!)
Tracy Saunders
jeffnd said:Jim and I have exchanged a couple of emails before he posted here. I'm leaving SJPP a few days before him, but at my snail's pace there's a good chance we could run into each other. I told him that if we meet, I'll buy him coffee or a cold drink. I hope I do run into him, because he seems like a genuine person who's heart is in the right place.
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