ear, is the one that never ends, the
one that has no return, the one that
we nomads do.
Going forward without looking
back, looking for new places, experi-
ences and special moments, and try-
ing to achieve that state of conscious-
ness where you discover that you
cannot and should not return. It is
becoming aware that you are always
on the other side of the border.
"Travelling,” says Magris. “Teaches
us the uprooting of always feeling
alien in life, even in our own home,
but also feeling estranged among for-
eigners, and is perhaps the only way
to truly be brothers."
I was in Spain recently and the
experience I had visiting the city of
Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia,
was more than enriching; I witnessed
the delirium of people of all ages and
nationalities, possessed and im-
mersed in a peregrination trip.
The emotion I saw in the faces of
these people and the intensity with
which they talked about their expe-
rience surprised me. It seems that
all these pilgrims are affected in a
strange way 'to do' the route of the
seven roads that exist in Galicia. All
my life I assumed that the Camino de
Santiago was only one, but no, there
are seven. I spent a long time watch-
ing those who were arriving after so
many days of walking, excited, cry-
ing, incredulous for having achieved
such a feat and on their knees, with
their hands covering their mouths,
some with their foreheads touching
the floor with all the weight of the
backpack on their backs.
It was incredible to see how be-
longing to that 'collective mass'
immersed in a profound religiosity
affected them. It gave me the im-
pression that 'doing' the Camino de
Santiago would bring them closer to
that territory unknown to me, that of
FAITH.
I was chatting with a Brazilian
pilgrim and he told me he did not
know why he had decided to 'do it'.
TRAVERSE 67