A demigod?

Language does not merely report the world...[it] creates worlds...Language creates, distorts, carries, discloses, hides, allows, oppresses, enriches, enthralls. For good or ill, language itself is something of a demigod. (Ken Wilber, The Marriage of Sense and Soul)

Barbie's Butt

You can study globalization and read Barbie’s butt at the same time. That is what Jennifer Tang reported today in a column appearing in the South Bend Tribune. The first Barbies had “Made in Japan” on their bottoms. Then it became “Made in Hong Kong,” then “Made in the Philippines” or Malaysia or Thailand. Now you know, it’s “Made in China.” Barbie kept moving. Tang cleverly says, “To see a developing nation disappear from Barbie’s rump is a reliable indicator that it is no longer “behind.” “Who knows,” she asks, “which country will appear next on Barbie’s butt? Would it be irony to find it saying “Made in USA”?

More Thoughts about the Path

I received some new pictures of the camino this week from Elena, pictures that clearly show it as a path. Once again, I was trying to figure out why it feels to good to have completed this walk (a second time). I think it cleared my mind of junk and left it clearer to see what I really value. I feel I'm a stronger person though maybe a little more eccentric as well. This walk made me happy. It made the world seem like a bigger place.

Here's a Woman Who Really Takes a Run

I saw a photo similar to this a few weeks ago in the South Bend Tribune (this from WNDU website). This is Rosie Swale Pope of Wales, and she is running around the world. In the last four years she has traveled 2,100 miles while pulling the cart that becomes her shelter at night. Her husband Clive died of cancer in 2002, and according to the Tribune, Pope "wanted to do something special to remember him. 'I looked at a map and thought... Hmm, I'll run across the world.'"

So, on July 5, she was in South Bend. A little later, she was at the Goshen Center for Cancer Care waiting for the results of a test for breast cancer (benign). Also, while in the Goshen area, she had some repairs done on her carriage by an Amish buggy maker. She plans to run from here to New York and then fly back home to finish in Wales. Go Rosie!

Cruz de Ferro/Letting Go

One of the spots on the Camino de Santiago is the Cruz de Ferro (Iron Cross). I had read about it beforehand and expected a larger cross. However, what I had read said bring a stone from home to put at the foot of the cross. This stone is to symbolize something you want to leave behind. I gather most people are like me; they forget to bring a stone and pick one up along the way to symbolize the stone from home that is to symbolize what they want to give up. I arrived at the cross, tossed my stone on the pile, and told it good bye. I was going to leave behind my habit of worrying what people think of me.

Obviously, an act like this is worthless unless you do it with a certain attitude. Symbolic rituals, I have discovered can be rather powerful when the act and the intention are just right for the time and place. This tossing of my stone has helped me when I find myself with some trivial worry about what others think. Today I have a disappointment at work. It feels like I threw away my stone and have received back an end-of-the-course test. What charming karma . Perfect I guess.

Camino Photos

I've been working on this online album: http://pictures.aol.com/galleries/mhardy6262. I've afraid I'm not clear as to how to do it. When I try to view slide show, it goes backward. Slide 54 is actually the first picture and slide 1 is the last. I still have a few more slides to add. Above is a view of the cathedral from a park outside the old tourist section. Even away from the Cathedral of St. James, it remains a visual anchor.

my infinite minutes of fame

Jamie, my yoga instructor, read this poem at the end of class last week. "It's my favorite," he said. My favorite too I believe.


Famous
By Naomi Shihab Nye

The river is famous to the fish.

The loud voice is famous to silence,
which knew it would inherit the earth
before anybody said so.

The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds
watching him from the birdhouse.

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.
The idea you carry close to your bosom
is famous to your bosom.

The boot is famous to the earth,
more famous than the dress shoe,
which is famous only to floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it
and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.

I want to be famous to shuffling men
who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it could do.

“Famous” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems (Portland, Oregon: Far Corner Books, 1995). Copyright © 1995 by Naomi Shihab Nye. Used by permission of the author.
Naomi Shihab Nye’s (1952—) mixed heritage—her father is Palestinian, her mother is American—shapes the subjects of her poetry....

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.

Camino Philosophy

Rory Stewart writes about walking through Afghanistan: "I was marking Afghanistan. I wanted to touch as much as possible of the country with my feet." I think what I want, in walking across Spain, is for the community, the energy, the culture, and the history of the camino to touch me.

No News Is?

May 30, 2007

I have not watched TV, listened to the radio, or read a newspaper during this whole month of May. I assume news continues to happen, but I don´t really know. It is an interesting feeling.

Los Pajaros/The Birds

Watching birds along the way has been an added pleasure though often, I don´t know what bird I´m looking at. Some of these birds seem to sing in English and other in Spanish. Storks, for me, are the most dramatic of the Spanish birds I´ve seen, though I haven´t seen one for a few days. My book says they migrate here from Africa to raise their young. That sounds kind of exotic to me, and when they fly, they are strikingly beautiful.

There is another strinking bird that I am told is a magpie. I don´t think I have ever seen one in the U.S. For awhile I was calling it a padre bird because it is black and white, but now I know better. Also, we see many swallows. I am not used to seeing them in town.

I have not seen a cuckoo, but I have heard them often. There is no mistaking their call; they sound just like a cuckoo clock. They always sound like they are a distance away, and I am told it is rare to see one.

Approaching Santiago

May 29, 2007

We are now in Galicia, the province of Santiago. There are concrete markers that measure each 1/2 kilometer of the distance to Santiago. Today we passed "100 km a Santiago.¨ Many people were taking pictures there, and we did too. (There are three of us now. Elena arrived last Friday.)

The terrain and energy level of the walk seems to be changing. Our goal is near, plus, I think the terrain is more exciting--ups and downs and incredible mountain vistas. Plus, it is very green! I continue to love it except when it rains. Today was very rural and we passed many small dairy farms and farm dogs sleeping on the path. We are in Portomarin tonight, a nice sized town with lots of shops. It is a "new town built when the old one was ´drained´by the waters of the new resevoir." The curch was "dismantled stone by stone and rebuilt in the new town. It is a lovely church and the town is very pleasant.

Two Memorable Meals

May 28, 2007

Last night we stayed in a small refugio. The host prepared dinner for about 20 of us, and we ate together at one long table. It was one of the better dinners of the trip--four courses--a delicious squash soup, a beautifully presented salad (ensalada mixta), pasta carbonara, and a traditional pudding for dessert.

The night before, we ate in a small, charming restaurant in Villafranca la Bierza. The restaurant, La Puete Perdon, served delicious food that was not quite the usual. We were eating our main dishes when suddently the woman at the next table began to sing. The room became silent except for her singing. The waiter stood still, and the cook came out to watch. She sang in French, so I´m not sure I understood the nuances of her performance, but she was good, and it added to my store of camino surprises.

High on Height

May 26, 2007

We have been doing mountain hiking, and it is very beautiful. We´re spending the night in a tiny town--Ruitelan. Beautiful! Not much else to say. As long as it doesn´t rain, it remains exhilerating and exciting. Tomorrow we will climb about 2,000 feet and reach, at the top of the climb, El Cebreiro, one of my most striking memories from the last time I did this.

Beautiful Day, Steep Price

Today´s walk has been fantastic. The guidebook says, most beautiful spot on the camino and the most difficult. True. We started out hiking in the clouds. After about an hour, the clouds lifted and we had the most incredible mountain views, wildflowers, butterflies, sunshine, cows, sheep, trees, and other nature chiches. We are spending the night in Ponferada. We arrived here around 5:00 PM, but we have seen this town, off and on, since 10:00 this morning.

Yesterday started out beautiful but then a drizzle turned into rain so strong we could see little but our feet, so we were forced to cut the hike short and stay in a small town that seemed to contain nothing but three refugios.

I feel very content tonight.