Question: Does walking with another person alter the Camino experience?
Recently I've heard a lot of chatter about using technology, like an iPhone on the Camino. Some people believe it distracts from or prevents a spiritual experience. The underlying theory is that you will have a greater spiritual experience if you totally detach from anyone not on the Camino at the same time you are. That if you listen to the sounds of nature, rather than music, it will bring greater spirituality. That if you have contact with your friends and loved ones at home in any manner you will not garner the necessary points to transcend to the next spiritual plateau. Whether there is any validity to this or not I wouldn't know since I always took my phone and iPod and before falling asleep I used my phone to write my blog. However, the comments about technology got me thinking about walking solo versus walking with others.
I have walked three Caminos alone. For much of time spent on these Caminos, I was alone with my own thoughts, perceptions, mantras or prayers. Oh, and, of course, my music. I met a lot of people, shared a lot of meals and had a lot of conversations either during breaks for food or at the end of the day. I developed a theory that I met more people because I was alone. I believe people are more likely to approach a person if they are not already engaged in conversation with someone else or a group. I don't know if this is true or not, it is just a theory. But this year, I may get a chance to see if it is valid.
At home walking or hiking alone is a different experience than when I am walking or hiking with someone. My thoughts don't wander as much when I am having a conversation with someone. When I'm alone people stop me and ask if I am training for something, because I'm carrying a pack on what is normally a day trail. I get into conversations with these people about the Camino. When I walk with my friends, people don't stop to talk to us, even though I am still wearing a pack. When I walk with my daughter who is also wearing a pack, we do get occasional questions, but not as often and they don't last as long as when I am walking alone. This is not a case of better or worse, just different.
This year I have the opportunity to walk the Camino with my youngest daughter. It turns out she got her dream job and they are agreeing to let her go for seven weeks. I feel so blessed. But I think it will be a different experience from walking alone. I probably won't listen to my iPod as much. lol, I probably won't get lost so much, because she is on the ball and very alert. She spots the coyotes and skunks when we are walking the dogs. I'm just strolling along oblivious to these outside forces. lol, It's amazing that I've stayed alive almost 69 years. We have traveled together before and are comfortable enough with one another to allow for silence.
- My daughter
A good friend advised me to let my daughter have her own Camino. Easy to say, hard to do. It's hard not to tell her what to pack and what not to pack. I know it will be hard not to tell her where we need to stay, and say things like, "Wait until we get there because . . ." I need to remember the joy of discovering things, of making mistakes of seeing things differently.
I'm pretty sure it will be different walking with another person, but I have no idea how that will look. It will all be a surprise. I am sure there will be lessons along the way. I'll just have to keep myself open to the experience.
To be honest, even though I've walked alone in the past, my second Camino was very different from my first, even though I walked the same exact route. I wasn't the same person the second time I walked. The third time I walked on a different route and it was very different than the first two Caminos. Again, besides being a different route, I was a different person. I hope I'm not the same person now that I was before my Camino last year. It would be sad to me to spend a whole year without any spiritual growth or development. I don't believe my spiritual development started when I walked my first Camino, and I don't think it ended at the finish of my last Camino, just sitting in wait for me to walk again.
Life is a Camino. It is exciting, scary, funny, awe-inspiring, tedious, hard, fun, etc. I look forward to learning more as I walk the Camino Frances with my daughter this year. We leave in 34 days!
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