day 21: the microcosm

we're in villafranca, expecting several things:

1) calling home in about an hour
2) our sabbath menú del peregrino: 2 solid courses, dessert, and wine for under €10. t minus 2 hours
3) tomorrow's climb up to O Cebreiro. there's a lot of hype about this climb - apparently from villafranca it's 20 km more or less on the flat, followed by a jack up to 1.297 m in the last 5. we're not worried too about it, we've made it through the meseta. it's amazing how it's easier to get to the top of a mountain that it is to get to the other side of...the earth.

something i need to fill you all in on, today being day 21. on the first day, an extremely challenging 26km through the pyrenees undertaken foolishly after little rest and less food and begun at 2pm from st. jean pied-de-port, Pat and I had a formative discussion about microcosms. specifically, we considered the idea that this first day might be seen as a microcosm for the entire camino, which in turn would be a microcosm for our entire lives. we even expanded it further, conceptualizing each moment of the day as a camino unto itself, and on the expansive end, our lives as microcosms for all human life in all of time. the camino wasted no time in humbling us with a 9:45 pm arrival into roncesvalles having been soaked with rain and even pelted with marble-sized hail, but this microcosm idea has remained around in a different form.

we have been imagining that each day of the camino represents a year of life. our lives. things got off to a rough start - the world out of the womb is an uncomfortable place, and your skin's got to thicken up quick if you've got aspirations beyond the crib. since then we've endured the terrible twos, our first day of school, getting made fun of on the playground, and adolescence. only three days ago we were graduating from high school and going off to college. when you're on the road, the days (years) go slow - but looking back is another story. seems like only 3 days ago i was actually graduating from high school.

anyway, today represents the momentary unity of model and modeled: i'm 21 years old in real life and 21 years old in camino life (which is to say, extremely real life). tomorrow, we march off into the future. here's hoping that O Cebreiro doesn't smack us around too bad, otherwise i'm going back to 19. 19 was great.

twenties: what have you got?

tentative schedule - we're ahead of schedule mileage wise: arrive in santiago 12 june, officially receive half time off in purgatory (score!), hang out that day and the next. 14 june, depart santiago on foot for finisterre, literally 'the end of the earth' - out on the atlantic ocean. frantic waving across that body of water, general rejoicing, frolicking. bus back to santiago 17 june for our flight to london the following day. celebratory fish and chips, pints. 20 june, the camino continues, homeward.