the way of a pilgrim: 2010
Posted by peter at 3:57 AM No comments:
Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a
number of old people offer the following explanation for the great
disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why
all this has happened." Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years
working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read
hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have
already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of
clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked
today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the
ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I
could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten
(anti)social networking...
I've been playing around with Twitter for a day or so, and now I *think* I have things fairly well-integrated. We'll see just how much of a feedback loop this produces once it gets propagated.
I'm on my way out the door now, for a weekend road trip to Galion OH via Buffalo. I'll have sporadic access to email, but my phone will be off most the time.
The other day I received an email from an old friend of mine. He was mugged while on vacation in the UK -- no more credit cards, cash, or bank card -- and needed quick financial assistance. The problem is, this friend of mine died a year ago, and the message that was sent from his GMail account is a fairly standard scam. If you receive solicitations for money, the best course of action is simply to delete it. Here's what my deceased friend allegedly wrote:
This had to come in a hurry and it has left me in a devastating state. I'm in some terrible situation and I'm really going to need your urgent help. Some days ago,unannounced,I came to visit a resort center in Cardiff, South Glamorgan England, UK..but I got mugged by some hoodlums and lost all my cash,credit cards, I'm financially stranded right now and my return flight leaves in few hours time but I need some money to clear some bills, I didn't bring my cell phone along since I didn't get to roam them before coming over. So all I can do now is pay cash and get out of here quickly.I do not want to make a scene of this which is why I did not call my house,this is embarrassing enough.I was wondering if you could loan me some cash, I'll refund it to you as soon as I arrive home just need to clear my Hotel bills and get the next plane home, As soon as I get home I'll refund it immediately. Write me so I can let you know how to send it.
Grandpa breathed his last a few hours after his grandchildren came to visit him in the hospital. He was one month short of his 91st birthday.
Well, so the actual words attributed to Socrates in his Apologia were "not worth living." Nevertheless, I think it's an apt saying. I have busied myself with many doings since returning from Santiago, and have not engaged in much reflection.
One of the greatest luxuries of the Camino was the utter simplicity of life. There were no distractions. Consciousness, prayer, morning ablutions, breakfast, walk. (Or perhaps walk for an hour or two before finding breakfast.) Some conversation with people encountered on the Way, or maybe complete isolation until arriving at the night's lodging.
Stillness. Simplicity. And yes, serendipity. The timely meetings on the Camino de
Santiago are blessings for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.
But I'm back in Toronto now. Back to school, working part time, paying off debts. Life is good, but it is so very easy to distract myself from what is truly essential. And so, I have not been blogging or writing in my journal, or even taking many photos. My consciousness has been almost entirely submerged in the flow of twenty-first century life. Even the "bright sadness" of Great Lent is easily relegated to a ritualistic abstention from foods and attending church services.
It was much easier to pray on the road, with no home or possessions or agenda or distractions. (cf. Matt. 16:25)
I set out alone two days ago, and after a few hours of walking saw something about a kilometer ahead of me. (Yes, the road is that flat and straight.) I wasn't sure if it was another traffic sign or a person, but then I noticed the object had moved from the right side of the road to the left. After walking another hour or so, I was close enough to see that, yes, it was another pilgrim. I whistled and a few seconds later saw the figure turn. I was still too far for my waving to register, though, but the pilgrim pulled over at a rest stop and got some water.
Eventually I caught up with Javier. He had decided to walk a section of the Camino on his vacation before returning to wife and work in Madrid. For two days we walked and talked, or walked in silence. At dinner in the evening our discussions were surprisingly wide-ranging. Javier's English certainly improved more than my Spanish did. This morning, he headed to the train station here in Sahagún. In Leon he will catch another train to Madrid.
As I was scraping the mud from my boots (well yes, there was a little mud today, but nothing worth mentioning), Antonio and Artense came along the road. I hailed them and they told me they were headed to the albergue next to the church, which is where Carmina had settled in. We agreed that we'd meet back at "my" place for dinner together at 7:00 and I headed for the shower. When I came out a new man, they had changed their plans. In fact, so had Carmina, so the four of us are booked in here together again.
Dinner will be served in an hour, which gives me time to stretch out a bit, massage my feet, and relax with the others. I'm not sure when I'll be posting next, but I'm keeping notes as we go. Hopefully the next time I log on, I'll also be able to upload photos. The current machine is locked down, with only keyboard, mouse, and monitor accessible. Makes sense from a business perspective, but it is a tad annoying. Ah well.
Well. The highest level is closed for some mid-winter repairs, but since the middle level is 120 m (394 feet) above street level, I had a pretty good view of things. It was wonderful. The noise from the traffic was still audible, but it actually added to the sense of peace and detachment I was experiencing. The lights of the city are very pretty and I walked around the deck several times before I finally let the cold drive me back towards the elevator.
I managed to get a few shots from on high before my camera battery finally died. And guess where my spare battery and the charger are? Well, actually I don't really know where they are, other than in my luggage. I sure hope the airline figures out how to deliver my things to me. Tomorrow morning after the ritual phone call to Air France, I intend to head over to Sainte-Chapelle again. I will ask Sharif if I can borrow his camera.
January 6 marks the end of the "twelve days of Christmas." In the western Christian tradition, the feast is known as the Epiphany, and the focus is on the adoration the Magi offer to the Christ Child. In the Orthodox Church, the conclusion to the Nativity season is the Feast of Theophany, wherein we celebrate the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan. In both cases, we see the inauguration of something new and the death of something old.
The Christmas carols I remember from my childhood sustained this understanding, but now it seems that nobody sings any more than the first and last verses of these hymns. O Come O Come Emmanuel, Joy to the World, We Three Kings -- these all tell it like it is. No magic talking snowmen or flying reindeer here! No surprise, then, to hear the following chanted in the Orthodox Church: "Christ is born to raise up the image that of old had fallen."
the way of a pilgrim: 2010
Posted by peter at 3:57 AM No comments:
Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a
number of old people offer the following explanation for the great
disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why
all this has happened." Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years
working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read
hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have
already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of
clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked
today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the
ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I
could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten
(anti)social networking...
I've been playing around with Twitter for a day or so, and now I *think* I have things fairly well-integrated. We'll see just how much of a feedback loop this produces once it gets propagated.
I'm on my way out the door now, for a weekend road trip to Galion OH via Buffalo. I'll have sporadic access to email, but my phone will be off most the time.
The other day I received an email from an old friend of mine. He was mugged while on vacation in the UK -- no more credit cards, cash, or bank card -- and needed quick financial assistance. The problem is, this friend of mine died a year ago, and the message that was sent from his GMail account is a fairly standard scam. If you receive solicitations for money, the best course of action is simply to delete it. Here's what my deceased friend allegedly wrote:
This had to come in a hurry and it has left me in a devastating state. I'm in some terrible situation and I'm really going to need your urgent help. Some days ago,unannounced,I came to visit a resort center in Cardiff, South Glamorgan England, UK..but I got mugged by some hoodlums and lost all my cash,credit cards, I'm financially stranded right now and my return flight leaves in few hours time but I need some money to clear some bills, I didn't bring my cell phone along since I didn't get to roam them before coming over. So all I can do now is pay cash and get out of here quickly.I do not want to make a scene of this which is why I did not call my house,this is embarrassing enough.I was wondering if you could loan me some cash, I'll refund it to you as soon as I arrive home just need to clear my Hotel bills and get the next plane home, As soon as I get home I'll refund it immediately. Write me so I can let you know how to send it.
Grandpa breathed his last a few hours after his grandchildren came to visit him in the hospital. He was one month short of his 91st birthday.
Well, so the actual words attributed to Socrates in his Apologia were "not worth living." Nevertheless, I think it's an apt saying. I have busied myself with many doings since returning from Santiago, and have not engaged in much reflection.
One of the greatest luxuries of the Camino was the utter simplicity of life. There were no distractions. Consciousness, prayer, morning ablutions, breakfast, walk. (Or perhaps walk for an hour or two before finding breakfast.) Some conversation with people encountered on the Way, or maybe complete isolation until arriving at the night's lodging.
Stillness. Simplicity. And yes, serendipity. The timely meetings on the Camino de
Santiago are blessings for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.
But I'm back in Toronto now. Back to school, working part time, paying off debts. Life is good, but it is so very easy to distract myself from what is truly essential. And so, I have not been blogging or writing in my journal, or even taking many photos. My consciousness has been almost entirely submerged in the flow of twenty-first century life. Even the "bright sadness" of Great Lent is easily relegated to a
 ritualistic abstention from foods and attending church services.
It was much easier to pray on the road, with no home or possessions or agenda or distractions. (cf. Matt. 16:25)
I set out alone two days ago, and after a few hours of walking saw something about a kilometer ahead of me. (Yes, the road is that flat and straight.) I wasn't sure if it was another traffic sign or a person, but then I noticed the object had moved from the right side of the road to the left. After walking another hour or so, I was close enough to see that, yes, it was another pilgrim. I whistled and a few seconds later saw the figure turn. I was still too far for my waving to register, though, but the pilgrim pulled over at a rest stop and got some water.
Eventually I caught up with Javier. He had decided to walk a section of the Camino on his vacation before returning to wife and work in Madrid. For two days we walked and talked, or walked in silence. At dinner in the evening our discussions were surprisingly wide-ranging. Javier's English certainly improved more than my Spanish did. This morning, he headed to the train station here in Sahagún. In Leon he will catch another train to Madrid.
As I was scraping the mud from my boots (well yes, there was a little mud today, but nothing worth mentioning), Antonio and Artense came along the road. I hailed them and they told me they were headed to the albergue next to the church, which is where Carmina had settled in. We agreed that we'd meet back at "my" place for dinner together at 7:00 and I headed for the shower. When I came out a new man, they had changed their plans. In fact, so had Carmina, so the four of us are booked in here together again.
Dinner will be served in an hour, which gives me time to stretch out a bit, massage my feet, and relax with the others. I'm not sure when I'll be posting next, but I'm keeping notes as we go. Hopefully the next time I log on, I'll also be able to upload photos. The current machine is locked down, with only keyboard, mouse, and monitor accessible. Makes sense from a business perspective, but it is a tad annoying. Ah well.
Well. The highest level is closed for some mid-winter repairs, but since the middle level is 120 m (394 feet) above street level, I had a pretty good view of things. It was wonderful. The noise from the traffic was still audible, but it actually added to the sense of peace and detachment I was experiencing. The lights of the city are very pretty and I walked around the deck several times before I finally let the cold drive me back towards the elevator.
I managed to get a few shots from on high before my camera battery finally died. And guess where my spare battery and the charger are? Well, actually I don't really know where they are, other than in my luggage. I sure hope the airline figures out how to deliver my things to me. Tomorrow morning after the ritual phone call to Air France, I intend to head over to Sainte-Chapelle again. I will ask Sharif if I can borrow his camera.
January 6 marks the end of the "twelve days of Christmas." In the western Christian tradition, the feast is known as the Epiphany, and the focus is on the adoration the Magi offer to the Christ Child. In the Orthodox Church, the conclusion to the Nativity season is the Feast of Theophany, wherein we celebrate the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan. In both cases, we see the inauguration of something new and the death of something old.
The Christmas carols I remember from my childhood sustained this understanding, but now it seems that nobody sings any more than the first and last verses of these hymns. O Come O Come Emmanuel, Joy to the World, We Three Kings -- these all tell it like it is. No magic talking snowmen or flying reindeer here! No surprise, then, to hear the following chanted in the Orthodox Church: "Christ is born to raise up the image that of old had fallen."