I had been sitting outside the hostel for only a short while when Nicole, a recent hospitalera there, came out and struck up a quite lively conversation with me – one centered around the stark & fundamental differences between literally walking the Way of Jesus Christ (i.e. my personal take on his teachings; essentially, that the only way to truly honor Jesus was to be a humble, courageously active, and wholeheartedly non-dogmatic follower of his teachings & an avid emulator of his encouragements) and obeying the doctrines of Paul (i.e. Nicole’s belief – and as it turned out the belief of everyone associated with this particular hostel – that God wants everyone to worship Jesus as the one & only Son of God, and that anyone who refuses to do so for whatever reason(s) will never be allowed to enter Heaven after they die). Almost needless to say, it didn’t take long for me to realize that this place was in essence an evangelical Christian indoctrination factory (with all the hospitaleros & hospitaleras getting soaked in conservative Christian dogma for several days before being allowed to “serve” pilgrims for a week thereafter. This was all a bit disheartening (I had expected the place to be far more kindhearted and far less manipulative) to say the least, and yet I immediately & easily chose to walk The Way’s “higher road” by making the place its own Peace Stone anyway – taking more than few minutes to inscribe it with words of gratitude “for being Kind to pilgrims and [thereby, at least in those moments when your kindness was both sincere & unconditional,] being a Light for The Way of Christ along [the Camino’s} Way” … How fitting that a small herd of dairy cows ambled by at that moment, shitting right in front of me while I wrote those words, and how equally fitting that Dziu (pronounced “Jew” – the matriarch of the hostel) was openly disinterested in both my presence and the tale of my Christ-honoring Walk – even after receiving my gift of the Stone. Sending an abject lack of welcome, I smiled to her gently and went back outside. Her husband nervously came out shortly thereafter and chatted with me for a short while while I re-taped my shoes. Then he asked me to take a group photo of the two of them with that week’s fresh group of volunteer missionaries (which I did, of course) and then I flowed onward down The Road – feeling grateful that they had removed the (now seemingly dead) weight of my final large Peace Stone; a stone that their constricted dogma might well turn into a stumbling block for the innocent, and yet a stone that had been infused with the humble & active Love of Jesus’ actual Way nonetheless … 🙂

“Some people think they can find satisfaction in good food, fine clothes, lively music, and sexual pleasure. However, even when they have all these things in abundance, they are not satisfied. It is at this point that they realize the simple truth that real Happiness cannot ever come from simply having material needs met. And so society has set up a complex system of rewards that go beyond material goods – benefits that come in the form of religious surety, political affiliation, &/or communal recognition. And yet these rewards too – soaked as they are in equal measures of self-fulfillment – cannot hope to offer any semblance of real or lasting peace. And so it is that, attracted by these equally hollow prizes and goaded on by equally vapid social pressures, a great many people spend their short lives tiring both body and mind to chase after these goals. Perhaps they grant some the feeling that something of meaning has been achieved in their lives, and yet in reality such pursuits sacrifice much to gain next to nothing. For in their pursuit of material wealth or emotional comfort or spiritual salvation or social acceptance, these people have all completely sacrificed their ability to see, hear, act, feel, &/or think from the Heart. Everything they do is dictated by whether it can get them monetary comfort or social gains or spiritual salvation. And yet in the end, they have all spent their lives following the temptations of other people’s demands and never lived a life in harmony with their truer Selves. How sadly similar this is to the life of the average slave or prisoner.” ~ inspired by Liezi

Filed under: Peace Pilgrimage #02: Walking HOME (2019) by Scaughdt