25 Days To Go

I am wondering if there is anyone, besides me, who is not writing, or intending to write a book or produce a movie about the Camino. It seems like everywhere I look some one is turning a blog into a book or a movie. It even seems premeditated, like they plan to do this before they ever start walking. 

There are a lot of people, including myself writing blogs as they journey on their Way. It seems a human characteristic to want to record our travels. I believe explorers have done this since the development of writing. Maybe even before that, in signs and symbols that convey the information, “take the path to the right” or “danger ahead.” 

Is blogging just a way of staying in touch with and sharing the journey with the folks back home? Is it a way of recording the spiritual or internal journey? I know when I read my blogs from my journey on the Camino last year, they bring back so many memories and reminders of lessons learned, that the camera couldn’t capture. The interaction with other people and the environment is very difficult to capture photographically, especially if you are one of the participants in the interaction , as well as, the photographer.

But I wonder if thinking about blogging changes the Camino experience. And even more so, does going on the Camino with the intent of writing and selling a book or a movie about your Camino change the experience? Maybe it makes you more aware of what is going on during your Camino, because you know you want to write about it. Or does it color what you see, feel and experience because you have the consideration of what will sell. I know when I do art work it has been a life long job to keep the consideration of what will people like or what will sell out of the making of the art.

I’m not talking about guidebooks, I’m talking about narrative stories about individuals. The last few blogs I’ve gone to read are basically advertisements for books that are about to be published. I find this disturbing.