My hikes the last three days have taken me from Hendaye in France, to the small town of Zumaia tonight. That’s 40 miles as the pilgrim walks. And there have been some of the toughest climbs I’ve ever done with a backpack. I didn’t write anything last night because I was too exhausted. I’m feeling a bit better today, having only walked a little over ten miles and the peaks weren’t quite so high, so I’ll ramble on a bit.
Part of the charm of hiking the Camino is the people you meet along the way. These are not relationships that you maintain, but they are kind of fun. I walked for about an hour yesterday with a guy from France, who spoke very good English and wasn’t afraid to use it. I told him about the encounter I had with the French woman a few days ago, and he laughed. He said people like that won’t be able to keep having that attitude toward foreigners for much longer. He himself speaks French, English, German, Polish, and Serbian, and is working on Spanish. His kids’ friends all speak other languages at home. There have always been immigrants, but whereas a couple of decades ago there was pressure to only speak French, now those families realize that they can keep their languages alive while also learning French.
He is hiking a couple of weeks while he is in between jobs. He is in sales, and is just starting with a German company that makes really big batteries — the kind Steven Spielberg might use if he wants to go film on location somewhere and not have to use gasoline generators. That’s kind of cool. I told him I’ve just gotten an electric vehicle, and am waiting on solar panel installation. He was pretty impressed, not seeing much concern from America for greener energy. I told him I hope that’s changing. I hope I’m right about that.
But that brings up a tension in my own life that is manifested by this trip I’m on. I’m afraid my carbon footprint has not been great for the last three weeks. I really, really enjoy going places, but recognize that we as a species have to drastically cut back on burning fossil fuels, and that means cutting back on travel (until greener technologies can be developed for that). As kind of compromise, I have taken public mass transportation as much as possible. It’s great that these countries over here subsidize that kind of travel, and that the infrastructure is such to make it fairly convenient. I wonder if flights on easyJet and Ryanair are also subsidized? They are so cheap, which is nice to keep flights from becoming only the purview of the wealthy, but doesn’t help to disincentivize travel. Renting a car for yourself is a much worse energy, and it is definitely disincentivized over there. The car I rented for 24 hours was more expensive than all four of the intra-European flights I’ve taken put together!
So I’m trying to lower my overall fossil fuel usage on this trip by not setting foot into a vehicle for a couple of weeks. I’ll be supplying all the energy required for my travel by eating (which, of course, is not carbon neutral either).
It is such an interesting way of life, to get up each morning, strap on the backpack and start walking. It certainly isn’t easy, but there is a simplicity to this life that I find really attractive. I’m not saying I’d like to quit my other life altogether and become a professional pilgrim (I don’t think it pays very well), but it’s a really nice change of pace.
I haven’t so far had my earbuds in while walking. I’ve really liked just doing one thing — walking — and haven’t felt the need to layer it with other things the way I do in my regular life. I think it was Søren Kierkegaard who claimed that purity of heart consists in willing one thing. I can’t remember what his argument was for that claim, and I’m certainly not claiming that walking 40 miles in three days without listening to anything other than the sound of my feet has made me pure in heart. But I am suggesting that there is some connection between what we do with our bodies and what that does to our minds. I’m afraid we (or at least I) become very adept at multitasking and keeping so many plates spinning, that we fail to appreciate the moments we pass through.
They’re calling for rain here the next several days… I’m not so sure I’ll appreciate those moments as much.