What is a Pilgrimage?
Sandy Brown walking the trail.
Day 13, Belorado to Agés
What is a pilgrimage? I never know until I get there.
This one is what it is not. It’s difficult to see what isn’t, but touching back into my usual life via Facebook helped me see what I’m not thinking about.
I realized I am not thinking about the possibility of getting shot in the back of my head at the Northgate mall food court while eating Ivar’s ‘n Chips in a mass shooting. I’m not plotting my escape route or looking for a place to hide if the need arises. If I’m with Madison, which I usually am, the “search and find” function in my internal radar never stops through our lunch, and only relinquishes control when we are safely out of the food court.
I’m not thinking about the flat out viciousness that has overtaken our country and has become the norm, from both extremes of the political spectrum, right and left.
I am not thinking about the very necessary yet painful growing pains we are having in gender, race and sexual orientation equality, and not wondering when I am going to be trolled to death just because I have a different point of view.
I’m not thinking about homelessness.
I’m mostly thinking about my feet, food and the next place I’m going to pee. And how far out on a limb I can go with my silly jokes. I am in a sub-culture of people from all nations who share, at this moment, the same concerns, only in a different language.
There’s something to be said for being preoccupied with the lower rungs of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, even if you put yourself there on purpose and know it only takes a credit card to move substantially up the ladder.
At this point in the Via de Francesco four years ago I said something about how I was having a vacation from me. But this time, I’m having a vacation from the onslaught of fear and rage. This fish, if only temporarily, is out of the water, and it’s such a relief.
©Theresa Elliott, All Rights Reserved
What my calves feel like after today, a total animal. Metal sculpture outside Navarrete, Rioja.
Running of the Bulls: American Pilgrims edition.