Peace

From "Practicing Peace in Times of War" by Pema Chödrön

We often complain about other people’s fundamentalism. But whenever we harden our hearts, what is going on with us? There’s an uneasiness and then a tightening, a shutting down, and then the next thing we know, the chain reaction begins and we become very righteous about our right to kill the mosquito or yell at the person in the car or whatever it might be. We ourselves become fundamentalists, which is to say we become very self-righteous about our personal point of view.

100 People in the World

I've seen something similar to this before but reading it today on "Ken Wilber Online," I was impressed again:

...calculations done by Dr. Phillip Harter of Stanford University School of Medicine [say] If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of only 100 people, it would look something like this:

There would be--
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 North and South Americans
8 Africans
30 white
70 nonwhite
6 people would possess 59% of the world's wealth,
and all 6 would be from the United States
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer malnutrition
1 would have a college education
1 would own a computer

It's an interesting perspective of the world though I'm not sure what it tells me.

Travel Blog/Reading Blog

I'm moving back to the reading blog though maybe, I'll need to make a few more comments about the camino and/or travel.

Thoughts after the Walk

I said to Brook, "The people making this walk seem so articulate."

¨They would need to be," she said, "to take a trip like this." She´s right. To make a trip like this, you need a story that imbues a 750k walk with meaning.

The camino is, literally, an extremely long path for walking. However, it also symbolizes a larger life path, and I think, because of the extreme physicality of the walk, it allows us to feel in our bodies what before was merely an unexamined thought.

One day I was resting on a bench at the side of the camino with Linda (from Canada), and as we sat, a number of pilgrims walked by. Linda made a comment about all of us being together on the path. For some reason, that rather cliched remark had a much deeper and more poignant meaning while sitting on such a very long path.

Insights about love, companionship, loneliness, hopefulness, and happiness also seem clearer and more visceral here. I have asked a few people here in Santiago what the walk has meant to them. One woman said, "Ask me in six months." Others have commented that it helped them understand themselves better (true for me as well). One woman told me she has left behind the last two years of suffering. I have realized that I complain too much about the ravages of war without doing enough for peace. When I get home, I want to do some work that contributes to peace.

¡We are here!

This is the focal point of the old part of the city of Santiago, and it is an amazing construction. We have a beautiful room nearby and our feet are enjoying the shock of being relatively unused today. It is a relaxing time, and I am looking forward to family, friends, and home.

Twenty More Kilometers

June 1, 2007

We have about 20 kilometers, and we will be in Santiago. It´s kind of an odd feeling. I have been walking to Santiago since May 1. I look forward to arriving, and I feel sad about ending the walk. Mostly, I guess I am ready to return to my South Bend life.