After a year of silence our blog is once again active,and serving up tidbits on our activities, thoughts, and of course foodie adventures (Monica’s and others).

Monica and I have now hiked about 850 miles, and planning another 350 mile plus trek on the Pilgrimage routes (Caminos) leading to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Also called the “Way of St. James.” When we first told family and friends our intention, the response was always the question, why? Then a couple of days into the actual walk, I began asking myself, why? As Mark Twain said, “The two most important days in a person’s life is the day they are born, and the day they figure out why.”

At least part of the answer to the why, is now in a book, “Journal Your Camino,” which I just published. A journal is usually a book of blank pages (very easy to author), while mine does have 50 pages to be written on, it also has a number of quotes from known people, 25 photos that I’ve taken on the caminos of France and Spain, and a bit of text from me. The theme is the Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, but life however we live it is a Pilgrimage. We each have our own camino, but our destination is the same. Like hiking the caminos, we all have good days and bad days, ups and downs, questions, choices and decisions.

The world is in terrible shape, with war, terrorism, genicide, poverty, hunger, disease, and more. It is global, we all suffer with it, but we must also take responsibility for some of the problem. As Walt Kelley says in a Pogo cartoon, “We have found the enemy and they is us.” Our society and the world is ruled by Greed, Ego, and Indifference, which history has shown leads to failure. None of us are immune to greed, ego or indifference, in trying to cope in today’s world, rather than staying to our own camino, we get swayed to the camino of others; what does my political party say; what does my relatives say; what is the company policy; what will my neighbors think? Greed, ego, and indifference are the uniform of our outward selves, they justify succeeding at any cost. All men are created equal, but obviously not based on color, country, religion or other factors, but on all of us having a soul, a dharma, nashesh, conscience, by whatever name you call it, we all share an inner-spirit crying out for compassion, empathy, respect and love. We cannot blindly follow in the Political/Corporate lockstep, from which the majority are being locked out.

You don’t have to hike 850 miles to learn the message. The message is timeless. Confucius was talking about the Golden Rule (Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you) 500 years before Christ. Every major religion teaches it, but we don’t carry it out of the church, mosque, synagogue, or temple to the marketplace and live it minute to minute. We agree it is a nice idea, but a very uncomfortable practice in public. Why should we be embarrassed or uncomfortable to do what’s right? If I try to practice it and you try to practice it, we can make a better world one person at a time. Ultreia! Onward!
The journal is available from us for $10.00 or from Amazon.com