گفتگو

Camino de Santiago: People – Conversation Lesson

Kristin: From watching The Way, I realized that, y’know, when you’re on the Camino you meet a lot of people, a lot of other pilgrims. And I was just wondering, I know that that’s a huge part of it, I was wondering if…what kind of people you were meeting. Where they were from? What they were like?

Joe: Y’know, that’s a good question and as I look back on our time walking the Camino, without a doubt I can say that the people that we met made the experience so enjoyable. It was possibly the most important thing, the best thing, I would say about walking the Camino. And we really met people of all different nationalities and all different ages.

Kristin: From all walks of life?

Joe: Yeah, you could say that. Y’know, when I say all different ages really we’re talking from about 20 up through about 70, which seems like a pretty big range to me. And I was actually surprised how many senior citizens there were walking the Camino. Because I think about our parents actually doing something like that and I could…

Kristin: No way, they couldn’t do it.

Joe: …yeah, no way, I could never imagine them being physically fit enough to do it. But, y’know, people were from mostly Europe, the United States and Canada, but there were a bunch of people also from South America and there were actually a lot of Korean people.

Kristin: Oh, that’s interesting. I wonder if there’s more Americans doing it after The Way came out and, y’know, it was a pretty…pretty, well, I guess it was a well-known movie. There’s…there’s a couple of famous actors in it but I’m sure it brought the Camino more into the spotlight here in America.

AJ: Yeah, I think The Way, I mean The Way influenced me. I was interested in the Camino before The Way, the movie, but certainly after watching it I got a lot more excited about it. I think that was true for a lot of people. It motivated or inspired a good number of folks, Americans and just others who know English that watched the movie, so I think it was an influence that helped get more people onto the actual Camino, which is great.

Joe: Y’know, a lot of people actually asked us that question, if you remember, AJ. People would say, “Do you think there’s a lot more Americans who are doing it now because of The Way?” And I do think so. I think that’s really for some Americans that was their first exposure to it.

Kristin: Y’know, just talking about the people that do the Camino, AJ, I didn’t tell you this, after you left when we were re-watching The Way after you guys did the Camino, you left and we watched, I guess it was that same night, Joe, we watched one of the cuts, the director’s…

Joe: Oh, one of the extras that they have?

Kristin: One of the extra…yeah, scenes, and so Emilio Estevez was talking about one thing that inspired him to make this film was actually people coming together in community. Y’know, we…we feel like we have this online with social media but it’s kind of a false community in a way because you’re not having interactions with people face-to-face. And so, for him, the Camino was about that, just sharing in experiences together like, y’know, people used to do before social media.

Joe: Yeah, yeah, I remember that part. What it was, like you were saying, it wasn’t part of the movie, it was just an extra little footage of them talking about the movie and I found it really interesting, too. He was just basically saying the interactions that people have on the Camino are so much more meaningful than these interactions that they’re having over social media and how people think they’re connected as a result of their interactions in social media but oftentimes it prevents people from really connecting because they’re just watching their phone or, y’know, their computer or their tablet more often than they’re actually talking to another person.

AJ: Yeah, I think that certainly I could experience that. I think everyone who does the Camino experiences that. One of the benefits of the Camino is that it simplifies your life so much. You don’t have to work, you’re not working. Most people are not on their phones all the time. You’re not online. So you’re just walking, eating, and you’re bumping into the same people again and again and again, and having lunch with them, having a snack with them, having dinner with them, seeing them in town after town. And that’s great. And it’s all face-to-face, real life face-to-face connections. And, of course, you’re all sharing the same challenge and experience of the Camino together. So I agree, that was one of the most powerful aspects of the experience and for that reason I’d recommend it to anybody.

Joe: Yeah, y’know, it’s…it’s remarkable. When you remove the clutter from each person’s life, and what I mean is the day-to-day things that each of the people have in their lives that they need to do for the day, like going to work or doing the dishes or, y’know, mowing the lawn, whatever it is that they have to do, when you remove that from each person’s life and their only task is really to focus on the goal of walking each day and arriving at Santiago de Compostela, when you simplify each person’s life like that, it’s amazing how much each person wants to share their story, y’know…

Kristin: So what were some of those stories of people you were encountering?

Joe: Well, it’s different. Each person’s story was different, right?

Kristin: Sure.

Joe: Because there were some people who were just doing it for an adventure, right?

Kristin: Mm-hm.

Joe: I think that AJ and I probably fit into that category.

Kristin: Yeah.

Joe: But then there were some people who were doing it because they needed a change, right? Like…

Kristin: They were at a crossroads in their life, so to speak.

Joe: Exactly. Yeah, that’s well put. They had just gotten out of a relationship or they were switching careers. I met one person who recently had someone close to them who had just passed away.

Kristin: Oh.

Joe: And they were just trying to become more accepting of it, right?

Kristin: Yeah.

Joe: And to think about that person. I know for me, personally, when I decided to do the Camino, about a week after I decided my grandmother passed away and so for me personally my time on the Camino was about trying to keep present in my mind each one of my grandparents. Because, y’know, this is a Catholic pilgrimage and they were very pious Catholics during their lifetimes.

Kristin: Yeah, yeah.

Joe: So, yeah. AJ can you think of anything else, like other reasons? I don’t think religion was a big one. Do you…I mean how many people did we really meet who were doing it for religious purposes?

AJ: Yeah, not many people talked about religious reasons. I think there’s the adventure thing, the various personal reasons, just, y’know, just being outdoors for a hike, outdoors walking across Northern Spain and gorgeous countryside, I loved that part of it, just being outdoors, active, walking, not stuck in a building at a computer. For me that was one of the best parts of it that I just…I loved. Some people I’d say expressed spiritual reasons so that’s sort of like a vague, sort of deep meaning might be more psychological or emotional or not quite religious like an organized religion but religious-like reasons. But actually…no, I was actually very surprised to meet very, very few devout Catholics doing it.

Joe: I bet that if we would have actually done the Camino say 30, 40 years ago, I bet that would have been much different. I bet more people would have been doing it as an actual Catholic pilgrimage.