D
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Greetings!
After wrestling with the mind of the octopus, I now want to broach another 'miscellaneous' matter with the forum, in response to an old posting I read today which has a bearing on something I observed along the CF this year.
Memorial cards.
Now, once again, I'm not trying to stir people up with this; it is simply a phenomenon with which I am not well acquainted and at present I find it a little mystifying. If the subject of memorial cards is likely to revive painful emotions, however indirect the reference, then perhaps you want to stop reading at this point and ignore the thread.
Walking CF, or indeed on any route, I am often moved by the sight of a stone marker or crucifix setup to the memory of a pilgrim who died on their way to Santiago. I now recall also, with sober emotion, a submission in a guestbook by a pilgrim who spoke of the death of a wonderful veteran peregrino who succumbed to the stresses and strains of the Camino San Salvador, the very taxing mountainous portion I myself had just completed that day, after a great deal of effort. But this year, walking with my companion, we were often struck by the addition to long established and weather-worn memorials to fallen pilgrims of photographs, letters, notes, memorial cards, all placed on top of the shrine. In our naivety we asked, Can so many people have died on this very same stretch of the camino? Or on this very spot (say, at the top of a hill after a long climb)? Seems unlikely but not impossible.
Today I finally read the old thread that has been highlighted by Ivar, the one about those we leave behind, and soon I came across the reply by forum moderator Arn (24/01/2012): "I carried several Memorial Cards for my young nephew who was killed in a tragic accident...I placed them at several shrines along the Way. "
Ah-ha! So there is a reference to the practice. The thing is, my concern is not with the leaving of a memorial card in a church, a chapel, or a cathedral, but more specifically leaving a card (or a series of cards) on top of another memorial. Why would you do this, I mean why would you leave memorial cards to people who apparently did not die on Camino de Santiago...along the very same Camino de Santiago? Why, more to the point, would you attempt to, however unconsciously, steal focus from the memorial to someone who did die on 'the way', by placing your own memorial card and other mementos on top of the deceased pilgrim's stone? You presumably would not go to one of those bouquets of flowers one sees alongside a dangerous road, marking the spot where someone died in a traffic collision, and then place your memorial card on that spot, simply because you happened to be passing by.
This wondering of mine, inevitably, brings us back to The Way (2010). Tom (Martin Sheen), as I'm sure we all know, scatters the ashes of his deceased son, Daniel, at various spots along CF, including in one or two instances, at roadside shrines and maybe even on someone's grave (I need to watch again). Maybe you find that plot point touching, or maybe not. Question is, did this movie have any bearing on the activities of mourners who go around placing memorial cards for people who (unlike Daniel) did not die on the pilgrimage to Compostela, even on top of the memorials to individuals who did? And what do you think about it?
There are no shortage of OPs and replies on the forum regarding such subjects as littering, leaving all manner of things on the path, and sometimes the discussion includes the great heap of objects, not just stones, deposited at Cruz de ferro. The discussion can get testy, for sure. I hope my OP doesn't cause a row, and that I can get your pov on this phenomenon from whatever angle you view it. I resist using that tiresome adjective, 'appropriate', with regard to this behaviour, except maybe alongside its twin verb to restate the question: "Do you think it appropriate that mourners on CdS appropriate the memorial markers to deceased pilgrims by depositing memorial cards dedicated to non-pilgrims on the same spot?
Buen camino a todos,
Philippum
After wrestling with the mind of the octopus, I now want to broach another 'miscellaneous' matter with the forum, in response to an old posting I read today which has a bearing on something I observed along the CF this year.
Memorial cards.
Now, once again, I'm not trying to stir people up with this; it is simply a phenomenon with which I am not well acquainted and at present I find it a little mystifying. If the subject of memorial cards is likely to revive painful emotions, however indirect the reference, then perhaps you want to stop reading at this point and ignore the thread.
Walking CF, or indeed on any route, I am often moved by the sight of a stone marker or crucifix setup to the memory of a pilgrim who died on their way to Santiago. I now recall also, with sober emotion, a submission in a guestbook by a pilgrim who spoke of the death of a wonderful veteran peregrino who succumbed to the stresses and strains of the Camino San Salvador, the very taxing mountainous portion I myself had just completed that day, after a great deal of effort. But this year, walking with my companion, we were often struck by the addition to long established and weather-worn memorials to fallen pilgrims of photographs, letters, notes, memorial cards, all placed on top of the shrine. In our naivety we asked, Can so many people have died on this very same stretch of the camino? Or on this very spot (say, at the top of a hill after a long climb)? Seems unlikely but not impossible.
Today I finally read the old thread that has been highlighted by Ivar, the one about those we leave behind, and soon I came across the reply by forum moderator Arn (24/01/2012): "I carried several Memorial Cards for my young nephew who was killed in a tragic accident...I placed them at several shrines along the Way. "
Ah-ha! So there is a reference to the practice. The thing is, my concern is not with the leaving of a memorial card in a church, a chapel, or a cathedral, but more specifically leaving a card (or a series of cards) on top of another memorial. Why would you do this, I mean why would you leave memorial cards to people who apparently did not die on Camino de Santiago...along the very same Camino de Santiago? Why, more to the point, would you attempt to, however unconsciously, steal focus from the memorial to someone who did die on 'the way', by placing your own memorial card and other mementos on top of the deceased pilgrim's stone? You presumably would not go to one of those bouquets of flowers one sees alongside a dangerous road, marking the spot where someone died in a traffic collision, and then place your memorial card on that spot, simply because you happened to be passing by.
This wondering of mine, inevitably, brings us back to The Way (2010). Tom (Martin Sheen), as I'm sure we all know, scatters the ashes of his deceased son, Daniel, at various spots along CF, including in one or two instances, at roadside shrines and maybe even on someone's grave (I need to watch again). Maybe you find that plot point touching, or maybe not. Question is, did this movie have any bearing on the activities of mourners who go around placing memorial cards for people who (unlike Daniel) did not die on the pilgrimage to Compostela, even on top of the memorials to individuals who did? And what do you think about it?
There are no shortage of OPs and replies on the forum regarding such subjects as littering, leaving all manner of things on the path, and sometimes the discussion includes the great heap of objects, not just stones, deposited at Cruz de ferro. The discussion can get testy, for sure. I hope my OP doesn't cause a row, and that I can get your pov on this phenomenon from whatever angle you view it. I resist using that tiresome adjective, 'appropriate', with regard to this behaviour, except maybe alongside its twin verb to restate the question: "Do you think it appropriate that mourners on CdS appropriate the memorial markers to deceased pilgrims by depositing memorial cards dedicated to non-pilgrims on the same spot?
Buen camino a todos,
Philippum