The Way of St. James

At around 500 miles, El Camino de Santiago is one of the longest pilgrimages in the world.  Beginning in France, then through the Pyrenees Mountains, and across Spain, it's a beautiful but treacherous journey.  People are routinely injured and some have lost their lives.

Amazing views

What is it and why would anyone in their right mind go?  The legion is that James, brother of John the Baptist and cousin of Jesus, was sent to Santiago to bring the good news.  When he returned to Jerusalem he was beheaded by King Herrod.  His remains are now at the Cathedral of Santiago.

Originally,  people world go on this ancient Walk for religious or spiritual reasons.  But now folks from all over the world start this walk for all kinds of reasons.  My understanding is that you may not start for a spiritual reason but it will become spiritual before you complete it.

Camino in Spain

Diane on right and her sister

This morning in Forum, our church member and friend, Diane Homrich, shared her 2016 El Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage.  Diane (she was 59 at the time) walked 400 miles on her pilgrimage.  She stayed in hostels along the way never knowing who would be in the bunk next to her.  She walked through sleet and rain and forests and up and down steep hills.  She ate all day long and was always hungry.  She carried all of her belongings in a backpack, taking only absolutely essential items with her.  This included lots of duck tape.

 Her sister, a professor at Rollins College, accompanied her at some points but they did not see much of each other on the trail.

Diane kept us mesmerized for almost an hour this morning.  The consensus among every person I asked on the way out was that we all wished we had made this trip when we were young and strong enough to see it to the end.

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To get a better idea about this pilgrimage, consider watching the 2010 film, "The Way," directed by Emillo Estevez and staring Emillo and his dad, Martin Sheen.

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Robert Lowell

The world is absolutely out of control now and is not going to be saved by any reason or unreason. - Robert Lowell

In the end there is no end. - Robert Lowell

Robert Lowell was a great American poet.  He was born into a wealthy, intellectual family, educated at Harvard, was a prolific, Pulitzer Prize winning writer, and died in 1977 at age 60.

He was the first, best and most famous of the "confessional poets."

Another thing that set him apart from the rest of us is that he suffered severely from bipolar disorder.  He was hospitalized for months at a time.

Lowell's words below remind me so very much of a couple of people I love:

I had violent passions for various pursuits usually taking the form of collecting:  tools; names of birds; marbles; catching butterflies; snakes, turtles, etc; buying books on Napoleon...and gradually amass(ed) hundreds of soldiers.  None of this led anywhere.  

Kay Redfield Jamison's new book, "Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire:  A study of Genius, Mania, and Character" tells us a lot about his illness and his genius.   We know that a disproportionate number of highly creative people have what we used to call "mood disorders."

In the year 1917 Robert Lowell was very fortunate to have been born into wealth.  It protected him from a world that did not deal well with mental illness or even just "different-ness."  I'm grateful that we're gradually starting to understand that most of the creativity and beauty in this world is given to us by those who are wired a little differently and sometimes require a greater degree of care and understanding.

It's the light of the oncoming train. - Robert Lowell.


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Back In My Day....Walking to School

The other day I was asked the question "What was the first day of school like for you?"  My answer was "I have no idea."  I can't remember much of my childhood.  Never could.  But when I saw this cartoon or (as Time Magazine calls this  combination of chart and cartoon) "Chartoon,"  I began to think about how I got to school.  Sure, we like to tell our kids and grand kids that it involved quicksand, dragons and broken glass...and in my case, who knows?  Because I don't remember.

However I do remember getting to high school.

I was thinking it was about three miles from my house.  However I just looked it up and it's 1.8 miles.  Hard to exaggerate these days with map quest and Google Earth at hand.  There were no school buses at that time so the two ways to get to Tech High School were,  one,  to walk a couple of blocks to the trolley stop.  The electric trolley took us to Massachusetts Avenue where we would have to transfer and take another trolley that dropped us off about two blocks from school.  This was a lot ot trouble because, at rush hour, trolleys were, many times, full or late.  So,  mostly I walked the 1.8 miles.  I think I should get some "Back in my day" points because this does mean that I walked 3.8 miles back and forth to school every day.

How do I feel about that?  I think all the exercise I got when I was young, middle aged and now old, is a big part of what has helped me stay healthy and vertical.


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Arrival

If you could see your whole life from start to finish would you change things? - Dr. Louise Banks in the film Arrival.

Dave and I have discussed this question many times.  We've both decided that, first, we human beings could not handle knowing all of the tragedy and loss before us, but, second, we both would not want to change much of anything in our pasts.

We saw the Academy Award nominated film Arrival last night.  I loved it.  It's an alien film for grown ups.  It's not easy to understand but the question Louise asks in the quote above is a big clue.

Dr. Louise Banks, played by Amy Adams, is a celebrated linguist who's been chosen to meet with aliens who've landed in the United States.  Eleven other pods have landed in other parts of the world.  Louise's job is to discover how to communicate.  It turns out to be through circles rather than words.  They do not experience time as linear but rather circular.

This is another clue.

All during the film Louise experiences flashbacks of her time with her daughter, Hannah, who suffered from cancer and died at a young age. Early in these flashbacks we see Louise wearing a wedding band.  Then we don't.  Who could this mysterious husband be?  Why are they no longer married?

 Louise explains to Hannah that her name is a palindrome.  It's spelled the same forward and backward.

This is another clue.

This film beautifully portrays the importance of common language.  The aliens scare us humans because Louise translates their message as "Give weapons" when they are actually saying "Give tools."  They want to give us the tools of inter-galaxy language - one that surpasses time and space.


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What Is Vertigo Like?

I have vertigo.  Vertigo makes it feel like the floor is pitching up and down.  Things seem to be spinning.  It's like standing on the deck of a ship in really high seas.  - Laura Hillenbrand, author.





Vertigo is hard to explain.  You need to experience it.  Oh, wait, no you don't!

A couple of weeks ago I was having issues and the strangest thing happened.  My New Yorker has tiny stick figure cartoons throughout the magazine with no explanation, no commentary, no credits.

And there they were.  Stick figures struggling with vertigo.  I couldn't believe it.

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You Know How Women Are

Almost every morning I get up early and read for two - sometimes three - hours.  Currently I'm reading:

• The Orlando Sentinel
• The New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in a version called The Message
• Falling Upward by Richard Rohr
• A Land Remembered by Patrick Smith

In addition, since Wednesday was International Women's Day, I decided to re-read "You Know How Women Are," a short story within a book by Sinclair Lewis.  

In 1928 Lewis wrote the book "The Man Who Knew Coolidge."  There are several monologues within the book.  "You Know How Women Are" is one of them.  The guy giving the monologue is a failed blowhard of a salesman who is trying to get his friend, Walt, to give him a loan.  He explains to Walt how he got into the mess he is currently in.  He blames everyone and everything under the sun but, mostly, it's the fault of his wife, Mame.

His explanation is funny, sad and familiar.  

In 1930 Sinclair Lewis won the Nobel Prize for Literature.  His speech is excellent.  He was one prolific writer - and somewhat of a prophet.  He's been "tellin' it like it is since the early 1900s."

Look up "You Know How Women Are."  You'll like it. 

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Manchester by the Sea

I said a while back that I didn't want to see this film until after the holidays.  I saw it last week, just before Ash Wednesday.

Manchester by the Sea is the perfect film to see during Lent.   It's about tragic loss.  Lent is about tragic loss.  Life is a series of losses.  Some by our own making, some not.

Manchester by the Sea is a beautiful little fishing village about 34 miles northeast of Boston.  The Academy Award nominated film is an exquisite, devastating story.

Lee Chandler, due to his own terrible series of mistakes,  has caused the deaths of his three children.  He loved them dearly.

Lee is enveloped in pain.  He moves away.  He is closed off and inaccessible.  And then, sometime later, his brother dies leaving behind a 16 year old son.  Lee must return to Manchester-by-the-Sea and face his demons.

We are taken along on the struggle to survive.  In the end we see hope for healing.

We humans want to believe that all misfortune is caused by bad people.  However, there are no bad people in this film.  Well, except for the character played by Matthew Broderick.  He plays a religious zealot.

This is also Biblical - and relates to the season of Lent.


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I Can Fix the Oscars

Deadpool Oscar

Hollywood is still reeling with Sunday night's  big faux pas at the Oscars when Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty announced the wrong film as winner of the Academy Award.    La La Land was declared the winner when it was supposed to be Moonlight.

But this isn't the only problem with the Oscars.  We all know the show is entirely too long.  What the billion of us in our jammies watching from around the globe want to see is Hollywood razzle dazzle, not the silly stuff that makes no sense.

For instance, the crowd of tourists arriving - unbeknownst to them - at the theater door and being ushered in to hang out with the world's most beautiful people - was cringe-worthy.  

Also what was the point of the candy dropping from the ceiling?  And what about Jimmy Kimmel texting up on the screen?  Big time waster. - and it didn't work   At least this year we didn't have to watch Girl Scouts sell their cookies.

Here's what we want!  We want beautiful people who are totally comfortable in the public eye entertaining us - either on stage or just sitting in their seats - being beautiful.  Is this so hard?  Can't the Oscars just make do with the scores of highest paid entertainers in the world and not ship in us civilians to mess things us?

Remember Jack Palance doing one
arm push ups at the Oscars?

And for years I've had a problem with the Oscars bringing out old timers who are well past their prime. ( I used to spend a lot of time in front of a microphone.  But I no longer have nerves of steel. ) If old-timers are to be honored, why not just show great clips from their careers? It was an embarrassment to see 1967s' Bonnie and Clyde have to deal with the mix-up.  They shouldn't have been put in that situation.  Denzel or Amy could have handled it.  

All in all, I thought Jimmy Kimmel did a good job.  I loved seeing all of the awards and Dave and I think this years' film are excellent.

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