Is the goal the way?

The Goal is the Way. That is what wise people say about the Camino. That it is all about making your way along the trail and all that, that, involves and brings you in experiences, rich and rewarding but sometimes tough and even barren.

Does the same apply to writing? It is not about the product – the book or article or movie script, it is the pursuit of the process.

OK, so this is not my idea. I thought the book was pretty important. This is an idea by the author Susan Orlean, more about her later. But I realize that there was a time when I was just happily rereading my Pardon My Camino draft (called Hike It! back then) and correcting, changing, and adjusting. I think I could have happily gone on doing that for years. Just reliving the Camino in this way. In fact, I did! But friends and family keep asking what was happening about the BOOK, and being influenced by others, I pushed the whole project forward.

But Susan Orlean came to this conclusion in a rather exciting and successful way, even if it was painful. She wrote a book called The Orchid Thief.

The story was inspired by a newspaper article she came across about a man arrested for collecting rare Ghost Orchids in the swamps of Florida. His plan was to mass produce them commercially. She saw a story, first an article for The New Yorker where she worked, then she realized it was a book. Once published, she got phone calls about movie rights.

She talks about this on the podcast Spark and Fire (which is all about the creative process). When she saw the movie script she was horrified: she as the author, was a character in the movie and more distressing still, in the script she was having an affair with the orchid thief, a rather grungy fellow, which NEVER happened in real life. And they had changed the name and the movie was called Adaptation.

When she first read the screenplay, she refused and resisted. Then a strange thing clicked and she went along with it. It was a rocky road and when she saw Meryl Streep and heard her saying “I am Susan Orlean,” it was surreal.  

During her research, she had been taken many times by the orchid hunter into the swamps to look for this ghost orchid. On one of these expeditions, she was miserable, wet, they were lost and night was falling. She asked herself “Who goes to these extremes to pursue an orchid?” And the answer came: I am the only other one here. And she realized that her quest for the story paralleled this man’s hunt for the orchid. 

And it dawned on her that the search for something is the achievement. The search gives you purpose. Is the purpose.

So for me, was writing the book the achievement rather than the book in my hand or on my e-reader? Does getting to Santiago as the destination of the Camino overshadow all the kilometres and walking and the heart and effort that went into it? Dear reader, we are all pilgrims in different ways, so I ask: Is the Way truly the Goal?