no good deed goes unpunished

[paddy25c]

well iam back home for two weeks now after starting out from st jean to go to santiago & only getting as far as estella after helping a fellow pilgrim who was struggling with a pack that weighted ten million kg , i know this because i carried it for her to the next village in shifts along with two others & all i have to show for it is a torn shoulder muscle. oh well there's always next year.

 

[JillHives]

Aww, that was very nice of you but it's a shame you couldn't continue. What was in the pack that was so important that couldn't be left behind? Or mailed home? Did she continue on with the help from others?

 

[paddy25c]

dont know, but what ever it was it weighed about the same as the planet Jupiter

 

[JillHives]

dont know, but what ever it was it weighed about the same as the planet Jupiter

Did anyone suggest she send unneeded things home instead of having nice people carrying her pack? My dad always says, "You pack it, you carry it." I always think about this when I'm packing to go anywhere because I'd never expect or ask anyone to help me. I actually weighed out my gear and pack last night. I finally have everything I plan to take and it was 5.5kg (including the weight of the pack itself) and I'm still worried it's too heavy.

It's such a shame that being nice ruined your trip. I hope she had the sense to ditch some stuff so she could manage it herself instead of inflicting injury to anyone else.

 

[paddy25c]

in fairness to the poor girl she was in a lot of pain , but that pain was caused by her pack being so #*%@ing heavy .

 

[fraluchi]

well iam back home for two weeks now after starting out from st jean to go to santiago & only getting as far as estella after helping a fellow pilgrim who was struggling with a pack that weighted ten million kg

Wow, Paddy, you must have been helping to carry the Spanish debts! No wonder you didn't make it further than Estella :lol:
Next time, whenever that'll be, take advice from old-timers and have such weights forwarded by more modern means. This Forum has sufficient info on what or what not to take on your (and other people's) shoulders!

 

[Deleted member 3000]

You made a very nice gesture. I am sorry that it turned out badly. As you say, there is next year. You might have felt as much regret had you left the woman to her own fate. Absent a time machine, I suppose there is no way to know. You did a good thing regardless.

 

[newfydog]

I have carried a strangers pack twice. Once on the Annapurna circuit, when I feared the guy would freeze to death if he didn't make to a village. The second, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, where I bought the pack and everything in it for about 5 cents on the dollar.

You are obviously just a good person. It takes death or money to get me to act.

 

[Stephen Nicholls]

Well done Paddy!
I had to give up in May, due to blisters and rain, day after day on the VdlP. I didn't even have the wonderful excuse of pain through carrying a backpack for someone else.
Never mind, Paddy - just think of all the Brownie points you've earned in heaven!

Buen camino!

Stephen

 

[Tincatinker]

Brutal though it may seem I think I would have assisted her in some un-packing rather than pack humping. Our own burdens on the Camino are usually enough.

Paddy, class yourself as a an apprentice Knight of the Way (as a minima).

I'm just taking a tooth-brush next time.

 

[Torrent1964]

HUZZAH! A good thing you did regardless and with hindsight you can always question everything, but at the time it was righteous. Again I say HUZZAH!

Torrent1964

 

[zzotte]

My friend hats off to you, you are a far better person then I would ever be, God Bless you. I'm afraid that under those circumstances I would have helped her and pack to a nearby bench or a nice shaded tree and called a taxi to pick her up. Did by any chance it occur to you that this person was maliciously selfish? Please give me a break.

Zo

 

[Abbeydore]

Yes you did well, one rearly thinks clearly in these situations,........ or even sub-divide her sack between the four of you? Or Taxi?

However, being @ home with a clear conscience, knowing you left her a-live & in a safe place is extremely honourable, WELL DONE.

David

 

[lizlane]

Don't miss the point of pilgrimage! I have yet to have the blessing of making my Camino; with that said, it is a Christian pilgrimage and the journey is not about arriving in Santiago but our finding our way to our true home. I don't know if you are familiar with the Stations of the Cross but as a Catholic convert, I was really entranced by them during my conversion.

The fifth station: Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry the cross. If it weren't for Simon, Jesus probably would have died before making it to Golgotha. Then none of us would have hope and none of us would have a Camino to walk because there would have been no St. James and no relics to place in Santiago.

So you bore the burdens of another, without regards to their worthiness or with regard to your own welfare and you have suffered in the flesh. You have suffered in the spirit by giving up your rightful place to witness the glory of the pilgrims' mass for the glory of being a living gospel.

In my opinion, you are not punished but blessed and highly favored. You found the real Way.

 

[annakappa]

Don't miss the point of pilgrimage! I have yet to have the blessing of making my Camino; with that said, it is a Christian pilgrimage and the journey is not about arriving in Santiago but our finding our way to our true home. I don't know if you are familiar with the Stations of the Cross but as a Catholic convert, I was really entranced by them during my conversion.

The fifth station: Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry the cross. If it weren't for Simon, Jesus probably would have died before making it to Golgotha. Then none of us would have hope and none of us would have a Camino to walk because there would have been no St. James and no relics to place in Santiago.

So you bore the burdens of another, without regards to their worthiness or with regard to your own welfare and you have suffered in the flesh. You have suffered in the spirit by giving up your rightful place to witness the glory of the pilgrims' mass for the glory of being a living gospel.

In my opinion, you are not punished but blessed and highly favored. You found the real Way.[/



Lizlane,what a nice way you express this very Christian point of view! Anne

 

[paddy25c]

HUZZAH! A good thing you did regardless and with hindsight you can always question everything, but at the time it was righteous. Again I say HUZZAH!

Torrent1964

we should try to bring back HUZZAH! into everyday usage

 

[paddy25c]

Yes you did well, one rearly thinks clearly in these situations,........ or even sub-divide her sack between the four of you? Or Taxi?
oh! we did't think of that or as a friend of mine said, i could have given her my pack which was a hell of a lot lighter , we just went with brute force & ignorance

 

[Anonymous]

I guess I am old and jaded, and have learned that whenever you try to help someone else, things f up for you in the end. I learned to not interfere. Trust me, there is no reward.

 

[katarob]

Hi Paddy,

You're a good person. I hope I find somebody like you in my upcoming camino should I need him (or her). Buen Camino to you whenever you try again!

 

[julie]

Trust me, there is no reward.

Trust me, it feels better to do things with an open heart than with an expectation of a reward.

 

[LTfit]

I guess I am old and jaded, and have learned that whenever you try to help someone else, things f up for you in the end. I learned to not interfere. Trust me, there is no reward.

...curious to see if you still feel this way once you have a Camino under your belt !

As they say: what goes around, comes around.

Cheers to you Paddy!

 

[MichaelB10398]

I am not sure I would have been able to do what you did; I am too selfish and wait all year or two to be on Camino.

Tough love would tell me that instead of supporting such a terrible decision of another pilgrim that obviously did not read a single reference about how to walk the Camino, I would have taken her aside and calmly explained that if she would look around she would see not another single pilgrim that is carrying anything similar to the weight that had overwhelmed her. Extend an invitation to go through her pack to assist iidentifyingng everything that is unnecessary, allow her to choose what will be given away, and then assisting her in repacking the balance. If it is still too heavy, repeat the exercise until such time as she is comfortable carrying her own pack. She has more to learn from this Camino than abusing the Camino of many others.

I admit that I am crabby today and I am not going to be patient with too much stupidity. Work is very stressful at present. Having someone ruin another's Camino simply because they chose to be unprepared is too much. She either carries her pack and take a bus, a taxi, a train, a bus, a horse, a wagon, anything she wants except the back of a prepared pilgrim.

 

[Sojourner47]

[quote="MichaelB10398"
I would have taken her aside and calmly explained that if she would look around she would see not another single pilgrim that is carrying anything similar to the weight that had overwhelmed her.
quote]

Well I reckon you'd have a lot of explaining to do, as in my experience many pilgrims carry far too much. I don't know how far he carried it, but one guy at SJPDP started out with 17kgs, and a woman I met on the flight to Biarritz had 10kgs....

 

[Anonymous]

Trust me, it feels better to do things with an open heart than with an expectation of a reward.

:lol:
Just live my life before you judge. :wink:

 

[dazzamac]

in fairness to the poor girl she was in a lot of pain , but that pain was caused by her pack being so #*%@ing heavy .

Much as I admire your generous heart Paddy, I fear that I would be less tolerant. I'm all for helping other folks but not at the expense of my own health. I may be wrong but it seems unlikely that she hadn't noticed the pack was too heavy in many of the villages that she must have passed before you met. If she was aware of the problem but continued anyway, then I'm afraid much of the pain she was suffering was as a result of her own stubbornness.

If the pack was more than I could comfortably manage, I'd say so and I'd offer to share some of the load instead. Hopefully she has ditched the extra weight and is not relying on kind souls like yourself to carry her burden to Santiago.

That said, you did a kind and generous thing and I admire you for it.

 

[Stephen Nicholls]

That said, you did a kind and generous thing and I admire you for it.

Hear! Hear!

Stephen.

 

[3walkingtoSantiago]

Paddy, you are a better person than I am, but I am sure that, had we met up with her, my husband would have done the same as you (he is also a better person than me). He carried our son's pack for a little while almost every day on our Camino last year (I did as well once or twice - he is my kid, after all, so I would have felt slightly guilty leaving him behind :wink: ). That said, we are ALL packing much lighter this year.

I hope your shoulder heals quickly and you are back on your Way soon!

 

[marys-au]

a very kind and selfless act Paddy. Wishing you a speedy recovery so you can complete your Camino.

 

[Thornley]

Hi Paddy,
Mate she got me last week.
Can't believe it how the girl looks so fresh.
People everywhere with crook backs etc but the lass has a smile.

Alan 13446 ......1000%

Mary-au.........*** hope the eagles won Mary ,however Paddy returned home after Estella which is not far from the start.........no further camino at the moment for Paddy.

You did the right thing BUT>>>>>>

 

[Lydia Gillen]

Hi Paddy,

You are a kind and thoughtful young man. May the good lord bless you for your kindness.

I am very sorry to hear about your shoulder and my advice would be to take very good care of it. The injuries of our youth which we brush off so quickly can come and haunt us 30 or 40 years later. So do get to a good physiotherapist and keep doing the exercises until you are really better.

The Camino will be there for you. Twice I have had to come home because of injury. We are lucky to be living in Ireland where we can come back and forth from the Camino relatively cheaply.

Now let us all look at what is happening. Some female with a lovely smile is managing to get young gallant men to carry her rucksack as well as her own. It would appear that she is not even offering to carry their lighter one.

As I sat in Orisson I on May 8th saw an elegant older women exit the dinning room with a big smile accompanied by a young man who was carrying two rucksacks. She strode on walking upright, he was bent under the weight. I was speechless as were all the others around. I said nothing, though I think if I had met them on my own on the way I would have said something. We are all hesitant to come forward or speak out when there are many others present. I later heard the lad had carried it all the way to Roncesvalles. I wonder where he is now.!!!

Is this the same lady who is still getting young men to carry her rucksack? or is it someone else.
Several others have suggested that she could get her ruck sent on by taxi, or empty unnecessary things etc.

This lady seems to have great charm and to be using her feminine wiles to get young men to carry her bag. Often in life I have witnessed what I describe as "acquired incompetence".
"Oh I could not possibly sew on a button, change a plug, dig a garden, but you are so clever, so strong etc. etc." all accompanied by fluttering eyelashes. Is this what is happening here?

May I suggest that if anyone sees young man carrying two rucksacks that they take them aside and talk to them and tell them what people are saying on this forum.She will make it to Santiago ok. but is she is leaving a trail of destruction behind her? I guess she is nearing Galicia now.

Maybe I am the one now being crabby because I never mastered the art of fluttering the eyelashes and now it is too late.

 

[tyrrek]

Maybe I am the one now being crabby because I never mastered the art of fluttering the eyelashes and now it is too late.

I love your posts Lydia! I suspect you'd be fluttering the fist rather than the eyelashes!

I suppose we all just have to take things as we find them. If someone is clearly in trouble, help out, even if it's through foolishness. If we can advise and advice would be welcome, then great.

On my first Camino a woman and her daughter decided it would be a good idea to leave all their belongings overnight on the breakfast table at the albergue in Valcarlos. It was unbelievable what they'd brought - you could have opened a shop with it. Apart from anything it was the height of rudeness to leave it all there when they were still asleep at 8am and people had to eat standing up. Needless to say we never saw them again. On my latest Camino my walking partner had about 15kgs, which she carried each day with no hint of requesting assistance. She seemed to wear the same range of clothes as everyone else, so goodness knows where the extra weight came from. You just don't know what other people have and what they feel they need. It's their Camino, and it's shared with your Camino, so it's just getting the balance right.

 

[grayland]

Twice I have come upon a lady/girl on the trail who has hit the wall due to a heavy pack and can't go further. Neither time was the pack grossly overweight...just more than they could handle. One time I carried it (not much fun) about 5 km to the next village where she promptly discarded and sent back a good deal of what she was carrying.
The other time was a bit simpler as I was walking with a friend and we simply carried the pack between us by a strap each. Actually not too difficult. She also lightened the load at the next village.
Both cases were real and not an attempt to get someone to carry the load. Both took action to lighten the load so they could continue. Both were very grateful. One was a lady in her 50's (I would guess) and one was a much younger girl. Both were 20 to 40 years younger than me. :shock: I really did not think twice about it as it simply appeared that someone needed assistance and I was there and able.

 

[paddy25c]

i think ppl are getting the wrong idea about this girl she had really hit a wall , her knees & back were screwed up because she was not able to carry the weight, i only noticed this because she was crying as she hobbled along , she did protest but i insisted , we were in the middle of nowhere so getting a taxi was not an option & there were two others helping me , it was just my bad luck that i got a torn rotater cuff , i was very depressed abut being back for about two weeks , but one of my best friends gave me a verbal kick up the arse , spain isnt going anywhere & ill be back next year

 

[Lydia Gillen]

Hi Paddy,

You are a kind guy and you did the right thing in the circumstances

I really am sorry about your shoulder and hope you will take care of it, and as you say the Camino will be there for you next year. In the meantime you will have gained so much experience by your trip there this year.

God bless and Buen Camino.

Lydia

 

[paddy25c]

'' as you say the Camino will be there for you next year''
unless the Mayans were right

 

[lizlane]

:lol: I've had the same fear! If faith can move mountains, perhaps they can hold off apocalypses!