Simon Robson- Blog 13- Thoughts on Pilgrimage Related to The Trails (reflection on image and pilgrimage)

 Thoughts on Pilgrimage Related to The Trails

Simon Robson

12/13/2020

Today as I read more from the book “Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture” it talked about the ancient pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome. It made me begin to think more about the reading from the beginning of the semester “In Baghdad Dreaming of Cairo, In Cairo Dreaming of Baghdad”. This was a really interesting reading to me and I think it embodied a lot of the things that the Image and Pilgrimage book talked about as well. It tells the story of how the journey can be more important than the destination in finding more of one’s spirituality. 

These two readings both place a lot of importance on the willingness of the subject to make these journeys and pilgrimages. Especially back in these times hundreds and hundreds of years ago these are extremely long and treacherous journeys. Much of it has to be done on foot and people would need to rely on things like the stars or drawn out maps to find their way. The willingness of these ancient pilgrims to leave behind what they know in order to go on these journeys and attempt to follow God’s will. 

It is also important in these notions of the importance of the journey to open up one's mind to the spiritual communication along one’s path. Back in these ancient times though this would be easier as there would be a lot less distractions along the way. Now it is easy to get caught up in other things such as a phone, music, other people, cars, buildings and more. This is why it is hard for me to think about my own pilgrimages and the ways that I would try to enjoy and focus on the journey. There are so many distractions everywhere now that I think one would have to somewhat plan their journey around avoiding these distractions. 

When I think about a pilgrimage for myself to take I think that it would be important to travel somewhere without many people as to reduce the distractions. I guess this is why things such as the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Camino de Santiago are great pilgrimages to embark on as they focus on the journey more than the destination and they reduce the distractions that are found out on the journey. This is why the longer I think about it the more I think about trying to embark on a journey on one of these trails after graduation. These pilgrimages would allow me more spiritual understanding and guidance as I seek to find my way in life after college. 

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