The swirly, whirly call to life, adventure and destiny. It is the Odyssey and the Camino! It is the voyage of discovery and the lure to the great life.
Ah! I sigh. Here I am, getting carried away again. But how wonderful. We should get carried away with aspirations and thoughts of adventure. From my landlocked prairie perch, I can hear the siren call. At least to my spirit, though I am not dashing off in body at the moment.
It seems all this Odyssey talk has rubbed my Genii lamp to new heights and dreams. And I have not even seen the movie. But I am listening to Stephen Fry reading his rendition of the Odyssey as an audiobook. (Picture this, dear reader: Julia driving her new EV Ioniq 5, shunning the news and all its stress and gloom, and listening to Stephen Fry’s lilting tones) It is lovely. So dramatic and humorous. And yes, grim at times indeed, but then the gods come along with a helping hand. And Stephen F. adds his comments on word derivations from the ancient Greek, and theories of the present-day names of the places where Odysseus landed up.
But it is our universal hero, Odysseus, that I have fallen for. A flawed hero if ever there was one, a sort of King David on steroids. There is our brave warrior hero beset by countless and cruel challenges for his very survival. And all this as he dashes, as fast as the sails and his oarsmen can speed him around the Mediterranean. He visits ancient cities and islands, some of them identified as present-day Greek Isles and some just a mystery.
This is where my Camino sentiment comes in. The Camino, at least the most popular routes, are not along the Mediterranean Sea, but in the big picture, at least from this side of the Atlantic, may I say, not too far. And we Camino pilgrims, we set out on our quest, with a pack on our back and staff in hand, propelling ourselves along with no mechanical help, into the somewhat unknown. We face challenges and upsets along with the joys and beauty. Brave pilgrim travelers.
And that aura comes home with us: on a spring morning, stepping outdoors, we get that whiff, the fresh, wild one, and we are back on the Camino. We could see fellow pilgrims or a flock of sheep and would not be surprised. And along a local trail or path, we glimpse the Camino.
In Edmonton, I have my Camino support group. The local chapter of the Canadian Company of pilgrims. Every Saturday morning, whatever the temperature or snow depth, regulars or ad hoc folk like me take a hike, chat, remember and look forward to a future Camino. There we are with our fellow quest-seeking friends, like Odysseus and his crew.