Packing List (3)

This morning we did a packing dryrun to attempt to figure out about how much space we will need in a backpack for each of us. Here are the revised backpacks, at least for the next couple of hours. I think I'm obsessed.

Matt's pack
1. hiking boots
2. 2 pair inner socks
3. 2 pair outer socks
4. backpack
5. sleeping bag
6. flip flops
7. hobo tool
8. 2 pairs of shorts
9. 1 longsleeve shirt
10. 2 shortsleeve shirts
11. rainjacket
12. Liturgy of the Hours book (in ziplock)
13. rosary
14. toothbrush/paste
15. 2 pairs underwear
16. all-purpose soap (for face/body/hair)
17. unbreakable, packable wine glasses (2)
18. Bible
19. small notebook
20. leisure reading (1 paperback book)
21. 2 pens
22. small towel
23. clothesline
24. backpacker's first aid kit
25. passport
26. wallet
27. bug-repellant/sunscreen

Colleen's pack
1. hiking boots
2. 2 pair inner socks
3. 2 pair outer socks
4. backpack
5. sleeping bag
6. 1 pair pants
7. 1 pair of light sandals
8. 2 pairs of shorts
9. 2 tanktops
10. 2 tees
11. rainjacket
12. pocket-sized New Testament
13. rosary
14. toothbrush
15. 2 pair underwear
16. all-purpose soap (for face/body/hair)
17. razor
18. trail guide
19. small journal
20. leisure reading (1 paperback)
21. bathing suit
22. small towel
23. digital camera
24. Lowe camera bag (attached to belt)
25. rechargable battery device
26. plug converter
27. hobo tool
28. passport
29. wallet
30. lipbalm
31. tampons
32. polarfleece
33. foot moisturizer

Packing List (2)

We're trying to figure out what types of packs we'll need to bring - internal framepacks or bigger daypacks. We'll be weighing them soon. As such, here is the revised packing list, so we can make that judgement:


Matt's pack
1. hiking boots
2. 2 pair inner socks
3. 2 pair outer socks
4. backpack
5. sleeping bag
6. flip flops
7. hobo tool
8. 2 pairs of shorts
9. 1 longsleeve shirt
10. 2 shortsleeve shirts
11. rainjacket
12. Liturgy of the Hours book (in ziplock)
13. rosary
14. toothbrush/paste
15. 2 pairs underwear
16. all-purpose soap (for face/body/hair)
17. unbreakable, packable wine glasses (2)
18. Bible
19. small notebook
20. leisure reading (1 paperback book)
21. 2 pens
22. small towel
23. clothesline
24. backpacker's first aid kit
25. passport
26. wallet
27. bug-repellant/sunscreen

Colleen's pack
1. hiking boots
2. 2 pair inner socks
3. 2 pair outer socks
4. backpack
5. sleeping bag
6. 1 pair pants
7. 1 pair of light sandals
8. 2 pairs of shorts
9. 2 tanktops
10. 2 tees
11. rainjacket
12. pocket-sized New Testament
13. rosary
14. toothbrush/paste
15. 2 pair underwear
16. all-purpose soap (for face/body/hair)
17. razor
18. trail guide
19. small journal
20. leisure reading (1 paperback)
21. bathing suit
22. small towel
23. digital camera
24. Lowe camera bag (attached to belt)
25. rechargable battery device
26. plug converter
27. hobo tool
28. passport
29. wallet
30. lipbalm
31. tampons

As you can see, it is pretty similar to the original, with the exceptions of the separate lists (due to our having some community type items) and the additions and subtractions of a couple items.

Christmas Gear!

For Christmas, we received the following items which will be accompanying us on our pilgrimage:

1. Cabela's Goretex Rain Jacket (Women's)
2. 2 pairs hiking socks (Women's)
3. digital camera/Lowe camera bag/rechargable battery device (small!)
4. unbreakable, packable wine glasses (2)
5. clothesline
6. backpacker's first aid kit
7. hobotools (2) - retractable fork, spoon, bottle opener, knife, can opener
8. bug-repellant/sunscreen
9. cash, which will be put in savings for said trip/fund a pair of good hiking boots for Matt

Galician-English/English-Galician Dictionary

Several weeks before Christmas, and even before the start of Advent, Matt and I were perusing Half Price Books in Kenwood one morning, when we came upon a providential find - a Galician-English/English-Galician (Galego) Dictionary. Galician being the native dialect of the Northwest part of Spain, and the Northwest part of Spain being the large expanse of our pilgrimage route, I picked up a couple copies, as they were inexpensive and a small, handy size. When I got home, I wrapped both of them up and put them away in a bag to go under our Christmas tree. On one package, I wrote that it was addressed to one of Matt's colleagues who has expressed interest in the trek, on the other, I did not specify a name. As Christmas approached, I had not forgotten about the dictionaries, but I started to grow self-concious about the trip:

"Should I give this to Matt, even though we are nervous about having the fundage to even go on the trip?" "Is it too forward to give this to Brad as a Christmas gift?" "Is he going to feel locked into a hobo voyage he only expressed passing interest in?"

As Christmas Day has come and gone, and as the Season is still here, I decided to unwrap the unlabeled dictionary and get the other one to Brad. This is a time of hope, and why should we not hope that the Lord will provide for our needs in our travels? After all, isn't this supposed to be a bit hard?

Airtech

The end of 2006 has signaled a time of economic rejoicing/despondency in the Swaim Household. While we are whole-heartedly ready to cross the Atlantic, our bank accounts whisper back asking if maybe it might be more prudent to swim at this point. BUT, with the boon of generous relatives at Christmas and AIRTECH ( www. airtech.com ), things look on the up and up. The possibility of flying roundtrip to Amsterdam or Frankfurt for $450 is feasible! Joy to the World!

p.s. This is not a paid advertisement.

A Packing List (1)

I love creating lists.

While Matt decries the fact that the first (or close to it) thing he considers when thinking about the Pilgrimage is what he will bring, I believe considering the (lack) things to bring can be an exciting and fruitful venture into theoretical purging.

1. hiking boots
2. 3 pair inner socks
3. 2 pair outer socks
4. backpack
5. sleeping bag
6. 1 pair pants
7. 1 pair of light sandals
8. 2 pairs of shorts
9. 2 tanktops
10. 2 tees
11. rainjacket
12. pocket-sized New Testament
13. rosary
14. toothbrush/paste
15. 3 pairs underwear
16. all-purpose soap (for face/body/hair)
17. razor
18. trail guide
19. small journal
20. leisure reading

Am I missing anything? Is there anything I have too much of?

Tentative Dates

Tentative date of departure from Covington, Kentucky:
evening of July 3, 2007

Tentative date of departure from Washington, DC:
July 4, 2007

Penance and Possession

My first instinct, when putting together a plan for a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, was to ask myself what I should pack for the journey. My second instinct was to criticize myself for that having been my first instinct, and to take it as a reminder as to why a person like me might need to go on a pilgrimage.

I think penance has gotten comfortable. I remember my first confession, on Holy Thursday before the Easter vigil that would see me confirmed in the Catholic Church. I poured out twenty-five years of sins, and was prescribed a couple minutes of prayer. And while I still consider that experience highly valuable, I sort of wish I had been asked to do something more painful.

In Katherine Lack’s The Cockleshell Pilgrim, Robert Sutton takes off from England with only a bowl, a spoon, and a small coin purse, carrying them all in an animal skin bag. The lightness of his packing was in stark contrast (or perhaps intentional balance) to the weight of his burden; this was not to be a sightseeing tour. The physical strain of the journey would be offered directly toward making satisfaction for his sin.

I lament living in an age that is considers itself beyond physical penance. I feel like it disappeared from Church culture before I got the chance to dread it. Physical penance is a spiritual medicine that’s just too archaic, at least by modern American standards. It’s like bloodletting, or cauterization; it’s been replaced by more efficient and less painful methods. We do our penance as though under anesthesia. And I wonder if maybe something else has been lost in that liquidation, if only the idea that what you do with your body is tied holistically with the rest of your person.

C.S. Lewis once referred to pain as God’s megaphone. Pain reminds us of weakness, of mortality, and of the Fall, all states that turn our questions heavenward. But I think that there is an idea of pain that can, and maybe should, remind us of our own individual Fall. Maybe the saints weren’t crazy for rolling in brambles after a lustful thought, or whipping themselves to expunge pride. Maybe it’s we who are crazy for thinking that what we do with our bodies can be independent of what we do with our minds.

I’m still formulating where to put all of this in my reluctantly postmodern worldview. I know that masochistic excesses certainly existed when physical penance was more prominent, but I also know that lack of repentance flourishes in its absence. When Paul talks about wanting to know Christ in the power of his resurrection, he explicitly connects that knowledge with the sharing of Christ’s sufferings. The Moderns preach the risen Christ, while Paul and the Medievals preached the crucified Christ. I want to know both; or rather, to know that one Christ who could not have risen had he not been crucified.

And so I’m planning on walking with a light load to try and ease a heavy burden. I don’t know how bad it will hurt, or if it will hurt at all, but if it does, I don’t want it to be unredemptive pain. I want to offer it in a specific direction.

The Cockleshell Pilgrim

Last Wednesday, I obtained a copy of The Cockleshell Pilgrim, a historical-partly fiction book on a medieval English pilgrim heading across land to Compostela, from the Marian Library located high within the University of Dayton's own library. Matt has picked it up as well, and he will offer his review when finished

The First Exercise in the Art of Conditioning

This morning Matt and I drove up to Yellow Springs, Ohio (home of Dave Chappelle, Antioch College, and countless lesbians) to hike along the bike trail that runs between Yellow Springs and Xenia, Ohio. The trail was paved, with little to no incline, and we saw nine deer during the traverse. I wore hiking boots with two pairs of socks and Matt wore old running shoes with nubby, old cotton socks. Somehow, I was the one who ended up with the (gargantuan) blister.

What was decidedly un-pilgrimage-like about this particular trip was that, besides the fact that we only hiked ten miles, we hiked five miles toward Xenia and five miles back to Yellow Springs. That aspect of the hike caused me to wish I was going "somewhere" other than a trail marker (like to hot soup and a cold ale, which we did end up getting later), but doubling back was necessary at some point, since we had our one car.

I made the unintelligent move this morning of throwing on a hiking skirt instead of pants, thinking it would be warm like yesterday. While the legs got a little wind-burned, they were all right aside from when the well-meaning , but idiotic Yellow Springs native with the Black Lab decided to tell me I looked cold --- which was the exact moment when I started to feel freezing.

Fortunately or not, Compostela and its Camino will probably not be much like a rainy November day in Ohio.