Camino de Santiago Day 33: Arzua to O Pedrouso
Travel is often seen as a path to finding oneself, but is this a path to self-improvement, or something else?
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“Off to find yourself, are you?”
In the old days they’d strip you naked pour a concoction down your throat and leave you in the woods for a week to find yourself
If you survived – physically or psychologically – you might be on the right track
But you wouldn’t there yet – you’d still be a boy of 13
There are two ways to walk the Camino – by yourself or with others
Every step you take, you’ve a choice – to live honestly or to continue to lie to the world
Nietzsche asked: if you were to live your life again and make every choice the exact same as you did before – and to live this life with the same choices and experiences, over and over again – would you be happy to do that?
“You don’t find yourself, you create yourself” said George Bernard Shaw
With all these questions of How and Why and all that comes with doing the Camino, it may seem like this is a period where people leave their homes, their familiar places, their ordinary routine, or their pasts, to come and engage in an act of self-creation –
How can you create anything something when you have nothing to hold onto, no anchor, no attachments, no home, not even an identity?
In these conversations along the way where we shape and build these stories about our lives, past, present and future, we create nothing, nor do we find ourselves - this is where, as John O’Donohue noted: we lose ourselves.
The purpose of the Camino – or travel in general – is not to create yourself, a ‘new you’, to develop some ideas or even habits which you can take home that’ll take your life and your mind in a new direction when you come home
The only way to find out is to practice it
This path invariably leads you to wrong turn after wrong turn, wrong step after wrong step – if you’re honest about where it leads you
Step by step
And Piece by piece
You walk yourself into the ground, first physically, and then mentally
And all these people you meet along the road – you give some of yourself to every one you meet
But this is not free – you give away a part of your soul with each action and interaction
And every day the cycle repeats
Until you’ve nothing left to give
It is only when you lose everything that you’re free to do anything
The Camino is not an act of self-creation –
it is a path of self-destruction.
If you’ve done the Camino, are thinking of doing it, or are just interested in discussing the Camino or travel in general - then please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.