OTHER PEOPLE EXIST

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A long day of walking, walking and walking some more has brought me to the "big" city of Logrono. I know nothing about this city. And with the rhythm of walking the camino, one doesn´t get a whole lot of time to begin to understand how each town or city works. One arrives in the early to late afternoon and one leaves at the break of dawn. One chooses to do it this way because of the heat. The morning walks are simply divine. Before this I can´t really say when is the last time I witnessed sunrise. The air is slightly cool, the light is very gentle and new shadows are playing across the fields as the sun peeks over the mountains on the horizon. One just begins walking and finding one´s step.
This morning I awoke at 7 to the rustling of other pilgrims preparing their bags. Some wake up even earlier, say 5AM to get a good start. I met a guy who was in his late 60´s, Italian, who woke at 4:30 because he was trying to reach Compostela for the festival on July 25th. He´s long gone now. People come and people go and that is just part of how this thing works. You form strong but short lived attachments. The only real commitment people have made is to walking, and not to staying by one another´s side. There are of course couples and small families, fathers and sons, mothers and sons, etc who are doing this together, but many are solo. In any case, even those in groups often do the walking part alone, even if only minutes apart. On the winding path, minutes apart can put a person out of your sight for much of the time. A couple of days ago I saw a young couple walking, holding hands for about 30 minutes as I walked behind them. All I could imagine was sweaty palms. But then later I think I saw them sitting on a bench somewhere feeding one another food. So maybe they are in love or something.
But yes, walking is mostly a solo endeavor. I was thinking on this alot today. The tension between being together and being alone. It is a very fruitful tension, one that goes back and forth in all situations in life. On the path, I feel the presence of others. Sometimes it is not a good feeling. A greediness enters and I want the peace of the path all to myself. But also it is something else. The presence of another inevitably alters one´s walking rhythm. One changes one´s rhythm in response to the other. You are either attracted to the person and wish to join, or you are repelled by them and wish to separate. Either way you lose your own rhythm and feel slightly disjointed. It can be subtle but I believe it exists in all moments of life. Now, nobody ever said that feeling disjointed is to be avoided. This can be the prelude to a newer, fresher kind of rhythm that you couldn´t have found alone.
I could go on and on about this. Basically, relationships are hard, relationships are inevitable, relationships are necessary, relationships can be great, relationships can suck a ding dong.
And also, being alone is great, hard, shitty, interesting, necessary, inevitable, and everything else.
After a long day of walking alone, it is certainly quite nice to run into a familiar face and sit down and have a cup of coffee and a chat.
I see it like this: you HAVE to go out into the woods alone, have an adventure, meet a goblin or elf or fairy somewhere, gain a story or a magic berry, and then return to your lover to share it. Otherwise, life gets boring really fast. And what is that adventure? It can be anything at all. As long as it feels like an adventure and gets your blood moving.
This has been your semi-daily psycho-spiritual report from the path,
DREW

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Comments

[Monika Napoleon]

The Path
I think I know what you're talking about. Did a couple of long trips by myself. Loved the feeling of loneliness in unfamiliar places at times. Got elated when running into someone I met "on the road" then goodbye again. Up and down...........That's Life! M