“Slow man  Movin’ down the road, He’s movin’ with a leisurely gait Slow man, Doesn’t overload He just travels with his bodily weight” If you do not recognize those Paul Simon words, it is because they were never set to music.  They exist only as a lyric.  I happened on them while searching for an image that captures my thought today.  That image was the phrase “Slow Man.” What prompted me to think of that image in the first place?... Read more

Well, it is now May, but I arrived there three weeks ago, and so the quote is legit, “April in Paris.”  I went back to resume my journey along the Vie Francigene as it is called there. This was a journey planned to begin right after I retired from clergy life, literally the day after.  My last Sunday was Easter and the ticket was for Easter Monday.  Only I picked the wrong year – 2020. By Easter, Covid was global... Read more

You have to be a certain age to recognize the phrase, “Slowly I Turned, Step By Step.” It’s part of an old vaudeville routine, embodied by the Three Stooges.   The mere mention of “Niagara Falls,” reminds him of a wrong done to him at Niagara Falls, which sends him into a psychotic episode where he accosts the innocent fellow who said the triggering words. What has this to do with Pilgrim Life? By chance I was given a book by... Read more

For generations, people quoted the Bible for non-religious purposes, including the phrase, “Get thee behind me, Satan.”  We all know what it means. Or do we? In two days I shall be on my way back to France, as mentioned in my last post.  While all the details are accounted for, down to a roll of toilet paper, there is always a lurking sense of uncertainty.  “What have I forgotten?”  This feeling will only grow until I am actually on... Read more

While getting ready to rerturn to the pilgrim trail, I am listening to the St. Matthew Passion where I was brought up short by the aria, Erbarme dich, ‘Have Mercy.’  Rather than tell you why that aria is so powerful, read this article which I found, by Elizabeth Joyner on Earth & Altar. What has this to do with my upcoming return to the Via Francigena? Nothing directly at first.  But as I watched (a version ‘staged’ by Peter... Read more

Long ago I saw a quote from Gertrude Stein, to wit, “I’m getting ready to read Proust.”  There is no question one must get ready for Proust, whose ‘fleuve’ is among the longest novels in the world. There is also no question that a pilgrim must get ready before setting out.  Jennifer Westwood’s book, “On Pilgrimage,” has a chapter on this step, which is as important as the trip itself. I am getting ready to return to the path, to... Read more

Pete Seeger was telling an allegory of Viet Nam with his song “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” but I really was Deep in a Big Muddy a few years ago.  Memories of that came back as I contemplate a trip to New Mexico to see my sister. I am thinking of one day and how it reminded me what Pilgrim Life means. “It was Back in Nineteen Forty Two” In my case it was 2015. I was in Albuquerque... Read more

Call it bait and switch or just click bait, but a whole lot of the internet wants to say, “Made you look!” I am as susceptible as anyone, but resist and resent the idea that more likes and looks and clicks are what a blog is for.  Sure, without an audience, what good is it?  But is building the audience itself the point? A Drop of Water in the Comprehensive Ocean No doubt the internet and its children – blogs,... Read more

It’s been over a decade, but I made it back to Texas last week, a place so vast that the song – “I Saw Miles and Miles of Texas” – only touches the surface.  We lived there only four years, but any time you go back to your past you are on a pilgrimage to your past, to connect with “miles and miles of memories.” Needless to say, I wrote about it in my diary “This morning I took a... Read more

This is what I did a year ago, February 4th: It is my birthday, marking the biblical three score and ten, so naturally I decided to come to Israel and honor my passage here, with a long walk in the biblical woods, in the Shefla of Judea to be precise.  No snow, no ice, no cold, no party, no cake, just the peace of walking in the land of milk and honey. Think again. If you do a quick check... Read more