I always understood that the Cheat river was named for it's ability to cheat one of his life. Certainly that's what I was always told.
It's clear mountain water and fast currents make deep pools appear shallow and if entered the current can sweep a person away. And there are rapids that are so obviously dangerous as to make that apparent to any fool.
As a child of maybe six, I remember men talking - men who knew their way and who a child knew to respect - about who had died in the Cheat and who had canoed down it successfully. Going down that river in a boat without great preparation was thought to be a fool's errand. Those overheard conversations made an impression on me. So, one of the greatest surprises in my life has been rafting technology that makes it possible to take bus loads of people from eastern cities, fools who have never seen a mountain stream in their lives, down that river in rafts - and they don't all die. It would seem anybody can do it. That's real change.
This camino is changing too and in a way that is frighteningly similar.
Walking, we suffer each day, suffer, in our good boots and high tech equipment (viva Gortex). I can't imagine how hard this might have been for the uncounted multitudes who have done this before without our technical edge.
It isn't mandatory. We choose to do it. Yet, we choose to do it for the same reasons as they who preceded us and both the reasons and benefits are very personal - very individual. If anything is certain, walking the Camino de Santiago is a personal thing. Each of us learns something different.
It is also very spiritual. Remember that I was asked why I was doing this and one of the boxes to check was "spiritual"? I checked that box without really thinking it through. Before going on answer this question, "What does spiritual mean to you"? It's not a test question. You would not be expected to answer the same as I or to my satisfaction, but answer it to yours. Do it now.
And now that you have that answer take it a step further. In what ways might you benefit from spiritual development?
Among the many hundreds of people who start each day and the many we've met, most of whom we can hardly talk to, nearly all are here for their own reasons. Trying, each in his own way, to answer those questions.
However, the nature of the camino may be changing. It seems to have "caught on". We met a group of 15 students and their professor who was introduced to me as Ricardo and who were here as part of a medieval history class from Fordham University.
To think that 15 people would go down this route as a troupe all at the same time and all instructed in the same history by the same professor, focused on that mildly amusing little which is already known, and presumably tested at the end to insure that formative minds conform to the expected; knowledge passed on but not new found... Anathema!
God makes everything possible. Possible. Not easy. We have to do our parts. I've got a way to go, but I'm trying.
Discuss.
[*] Administrative note; plans have changed. We've been forced off the camino and hope to pick it up again in a couple of weeks.
A welcome to you both from Fordham university, and I hope you are back walking soon. I remember meeting in Astorga, and everyone was touched and delighted by your story. Your experience of the camino has clearly moved you, and given you a vision of what's possible ... but let's be fair to Fordham! You are arguing against a strawman. I know what you mean, and if our class were as you describe, I would agree with you ... anathema, but it's not. Being in a group is different, but not better or worse, as I have discovered. However important the individual experience, it's all about the people either way. Groups have been going on pilgrimages for a very long time. On the camino itself, many groups form by chance , and hundreds of organized groups walk each year, including 25 to 30 American colleges over the years (there is even now a consortium of universities involved in pilgrimage studies). In this "class," there is no exam (for the reasons you recognize), only an open-ended reflection, the students are responsible for presentations, which encourages them to read more and look closely at what's around them, we all walk at our own pace, and everyone meets many others along the way. The camino, the countryside, the history, and the people provide the lessons, which differ for each of us. Take a look at the Fordham blogs to see some of the possibilities: fordhamcamino11.blogspot.com, fordhamcamino10.blogspot.com, fordhamcamino08.blogspot.com, and fordhamcamino.blogspot.com.
ReplyDeleteI'm being defensive because you are right that traditional education can be faulted for the very things you say. The goal is to let the camino make this different, more formative. Granted, as a group walking for two weeks, there are experiences the students will not have, but can we agree that there is more than one way?
All the best,
Richard Gyug
Richard;
ReplyDelete"el que tine boca equivoca".
Sold you short, didn't I? Sorry.
I am amazed that you would find this and happy that you would bother to comment. It's good to think about these things and to know that somebody else is thinking about it too.
Assume my error to have been a wrong assumption drawn from my own education. A class in which the objective is open-ended reflection is completely outside my experience. But in fairness, what you describe is not the norm. I've dealt with the products of similar institutions my whole life and it's not what I've found. In fact, it would seem to me that you must be really up against it. Also famously, Americans travel in groups, as I'm certain you already know. So, strawman? No. It was completely reasonable that I would make that comparison even if in this case wrong.
Anyway, it's clear there are many (I have been astonished by the numbers) who share this pilgrimage compulsion and understand it for what it is. And I'm delighted that your students are getting the benefit of that experience. Tell them too - it's important to me that young people should know - that the world has changed. Suddenly. Massively. Irrevocably. To industrialize the economies of 2 or 3 billion people, all at once, most of whom have never had any reason to industrialize - changes everything. It undermines the value of labor and the basis of western economy. It stretches resources beyond their imaginable limits. I've called it industrial counter-revolution. (More about that maybe sometime later.) Our most basic assumptions no longer hold. The histories we've written will be re-written. What is the nature and basis of wealth and how do we add value in a post-industrial world? Not finance, I think.
These have been, here-to-fore, philosophical questions; academic. Or, religious! Don't count that out. Tomorrow will require answers of your students. I think it unlikely that we will have those answers ourselves. It would be good that they be trained to find them. I hope their time with you at Fordham will help to do that. Yes, there is more than one way. Absolutely.
I haven't had time to look at your links, but I will.
Many thanks, MP, for the thoughtful discussion. We really are on the same page, although you add some very interesting macroeconomic thoughts, informed by an inquiring mind and a global perspective---did you see the Economist's version of this recently (this week?)? It's a graph of history in productivity/person-years, which means the greatest changes in human life, the most "history," are recent and accelerating. Though deliberately provocative, it fits with your point. You're right that there are issues nearly beyond imagining that our children and grandchildren will need to answer.
ReplyDeleteI hope Mrs Polo's foot is getting better. It's a common injury, but not one to walk through.
best,
RG
I subscribe to The Economist and once read it cover to cover faithfully. Today I can only see it from the iPhone app. and I've been doing other things. I'm afraid I missed the chart - I don't remember it.
ReplyDeleteBut I've been thinking recently that productivity is over rated. It requires capital investment. Or equally, debt. Imbalances then create problems. Long story. Europe is hashing this out now. US will hash it out later.