I have a couple that show up for the Thursday morning walk and then do an archery lesson afterward. They are getting the full meal deal Phil’s Camino experience. Yesterday I had to skip the lesson because of my serious lack of sleep. Anyway they brought a present for me:

I am always amazed with all the great books that show up at the doorstep of my consciousness. Sometimes it seems like two a day but that can’t actually be true, can it? Anyway thanks Jim and Jen for your gift yesterday.

I am still wading through the last few chapters of the Thomas Merton book though. It has been very worthwhile despite my failure to grasp every single notion. He like Donahue give us a glimpse of the great big Camino. If the Camino de Santiago is a training ground for the Way to live in the here and now on this earth then these guys take the next beautiful step.

Sara was here from Seattle yesterday, a lovely young personality. It is fun to introduce new souls to the camino here and the salon of ideas that it springs forth. I always have great conversations with Jim and Jen and Sara was here for that confab yesterday.

Just briefly what we started talking about was the concept of guilt. This is something that I have been gnawing on for a while and the best thing that I have ever heard was this explanation in how it fits into our world historically. This is how it goes: In the preChristian era the big fear was death. That is evident to us by all the energy that went into death ceremonies, artifacts and the building of monuments all the way up to the pyramids. The Christian era ushered in the notion of enteral life given to us through God’s grace thus shattering death. We, the earthlings that we are, interpreted that in such a way that it required endless good works on our part. So, the failure or partial failure to live up to that brought guilt to our thinking. Now in this post modern world where we have thought that all medieval and largely abandoned it we have traded that fear of guilt for the fear of meaninglessness.

I have no idea where I came across that but it has served me well for a few years now. Sister Joyce my spiritual advisor said that I was good at finding useful things that I saw as I “walked”. This is an example.

So yea, the camino salon provides. I’m excited about reading the material in the new book and will report on it in the weeks ahead. Well, off to the big city for me to do my half day at the hospital. See you soon, Felipé.x