Camino bore: hula hoop moments (2)

Friday 4th June, Cherves Chatelars.

"And did those feet?" (Yes)

I suppose pilgrimages have ended like this from time immemorial, feet in a bucket of something, in this case the best eau de France (actually this pic is of Chartres 6th June, the tent guy line a giveaway, so it isn't strictly in order). The Caminella reports me 'lying down a lot' too. I've said a few times before that there is just (for me) 'one pot' of energy which can be used by brain or brawn, but once the daily amount is used up on one of these, there isn't any left for the other. Thus it happened that 4th June 2010 was a bit of a hula hoop day, and the Caminella reports 'interesting new ideas come unbidden', just as they did today in 2011! in 2010 an explanation of My Life's Work emerged onto a Caminella page, and it goes a bit like this:

You know how when you have visitors, they look around the house and look at ornaments and all the bits of junk that you keep, and ask you 'Where did this come from?' or whatever, and you say 'Ah, well, there's a story attached to that'. It came to me that the Bible is full of stories etc, and that I could make (and already did make)  objects that could be attached to them; simple as that! I was glad of the enlightenment, and it gave me a much-needed something I could say when people ask me at parties 'What do you doooooooo?' Thus there is the Ecclesiastes doll (= 'Cloth Q'); the Psalms skirt; the Ruth 'object' (work in progress); the Sarah and Hagar.... (work being conceived). The Paper Camino must be the object attached to the camino, I suppose - so far.

Tree wearing a skirt

In 2011, I went for a stroll around the garden and saw a tree, the walnut tree, and it appeared to be wearing a skirt (I hope you can see it too), and so that was my first 'good idea' of the day; a skirt made of some tree-bark-like cloth, with lime green Golden Hop leaves appliqued on, as well as Himalayan Musk roses, and round the bottom maybe the blue flowers of the Green Alkanet.

I can explain everything!

Then I thought about other 'good ideas', some of which have been simmering on for a while, but they seemed to bubble up with new urgency. Thus, I'm thinking about the Psalms Skirt, and how the idea for Psalm 23 came last summer, and here it is. I can explain everything! While in Najera, the pot of energy was not being used for walking as I was invalided out with the foot, and I wrote a camino-slanted commentary on Psalm 23. Thus it came to me that the textile thing for Psalm 23 must be the Council of Europe camino sign on its blue background. It's a watery background because the idea came when I was resting after a session of windsurfing (as I am today).

 Santiago Holy Year 2010 poster

There's a space waiting for Psalm 24, and this one has been simmering in my head for over a year now. Please be patient if I say that there is something deeply camino-ish about this psalm, and I'll explain. I'm indebted to David Clines who points out somewhere that there is a lot of 'de-construction'*  http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/crit_decons.html
going on in Psalm 24; the worshipper or pilgrim is expected to have 'clean hands and a pure heart', and yet the hands of Yahweh are covered with blood, he is 'the Lord strong and mighty in battle'; this reminds me of the two faces of St James we see at Santiago: there is James the gentle with his hat and scallop, and there is Santiago Matamoro, 'Moor-slayer'. One gets the feeling that 'Lift up your heads, O ye gates' will be to allow both Yahweh and the pilgrims to enter, and so ever since early on in the camino we saw this poster, I have thought how it made me think of Psalm 24. Thus the textile piece for Psalm 24 will contain some visual reference to this poster, and I really want to get it done very soon. What is more, Psalm 24:6 says, 'This is the generation of them that seek after him, that seek thy face, O [God of] Jacob'. Words in brackets not found in the Hebrew, and 'Jacob' is Hebrew for what becomes 'James'. I know, I know, the psalms were written long before Jesus and St. James, and long before Santiago de Compostella, but that is not the point... (See more on this kind of comment). Incidentally we never managed to buy this poster, so we asked in the pilgrim office where we got our Compstelas, and they gave us it; thus it is priceless. To be framed next.

* "Deconstruction is not a dismantling of the structure of a text, but a demonstration that it has already dismantled itself. Its apparently solid ground is no rock but thin air." Or as in Psalm 24:2, the earth might seem to be on solid ground, but 'He hath founded it upon the seas'. (Clines again.)


It was ascension day two days ago, and we had exactly the right preacher for the occasion. She spoke beamily (I invented that word - I hope you know what it means) about how Jesus was taken up to heaven in a cloud, and afterwards told us how she, a Methodist, thoroughly enjoyed the clouds of incense & music which wafted about St. Mary's during the service. During the gospel reading I had already in 30 seconds come up with the sermon that I'd have preached (on Luke 24:44 where it talks about the law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms being fulfilled; I'd have said that the psalms were not written as prophecy, but since they dwell on both suffering and victory, then they can be said to be fulfilled in the life of Jesus). Smiling Enid's sermon was just what I needed; she appeared unconcerned about what might have led the gospel writer to describe Jesus' ascension as he did, and I wouldn't want to suggest that she never thought about that. But I'm not aware of any theologian having come up with a convincing 'explanation' of 'what really happened'; thus, some of us sometimes quite like just to be left alone to think of the picture at times like this:


http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ascension+%2B+art&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=aab&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=sHXqTdDqEtGEhQfS1bW6Bg&ved=0CEcQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=615

Why spend good sermon-time telling people what you don't believe? Tell them what you DO believe, it takes much less time, as someone once said.

DO judge a book by its cover

What is really taxing me these days is how it came to be that St. James comes to be depicted as a pilgrim to his own shrine. We have this lovely book on the scallop shell which looks like it might address this question, written in 1957: 'The Scallop. Studies of a shell and its influences on humankind' by eight authors, ed. Ian Cox. Published by 'Shell' transport & co (they would, wouldn't they).

The camino map arrives home

Today I went out to collect one of the several things we're gradually having framed that are to do with the camino. Today's offering is a reproduction of an antique (1648) map of the camino and the routes it takes through France. Oh I LOVE living dangerously!

Paper camino complete

The Paper Camino is complete, and just needs to be properly flattened out for a proper pic, and then I'll fold it up and it won't take much room up. It probably needs a small container making for it decorated with a scallop shell. You enter the camino by the middle square in the 3rd row from the bottom. It depicts the Portokabin we stayed in (turn your head 90 deg clockwise). To continue the journey, follow the squares going clockwise (go up three and turn right, and so on, ending at the square top left).

Paper camino folded

'Good ideas' (oh dearrrrrr!) went on and on today, including looking out of the back door and thinking how much I'd love a back door that opened onto a garden, and so could be left open to let the smell of roses waft in. You can see that this back door is not one of them, despite there being a lovely good-sized garden that could be opened onto from the kitchen, full of many 'old roses' like the one above that is growing into the walnut tree. (Vicarage architects of the early1980s, not moved out of the 1960s, lost opportunities, don't get me started...)  (I can't leave it open either as leaves gather there, ideal cosy place for mice to lurk.) For us, the camino 'began' at that Portokabin in Roncesvalles, but in the end we, like most pilgrims, arrive back at the door into and out of home. But not yet in 2010.... we still had unexpected parts of the camino to come!