2 apr

Walked another 34 kilometres, from Reliegos to La Virgen del Camino, making a total of 1134 kilometres.
I figured out the way to jumpstart the Spanish economy. Abolish the siesta. What a waste of time in some of the most productive hours of the day. Okay, maybe allow a siesta in the summer months, but in early spring, with temperatures around 10 degrees (45 Fahrenheit), it’s nonsense.
Was planning to stay a few hours in Leon. I just read this morning an article in The Times about this museum in Northern Spain that housed the Holy Grail, according to a recently published book. To me the Holy Grail, supposed to be the drinking cup of Jesus, is not of particular interest. It is more the territory for people who love conspiracy theories. But since the particular museum was in Leon, I thought it too much of a coincidence to have read about it today, to miss the opportunity to go and see it. Arrived at Leon at 2 PM, just after the museum closed. Would have to wait another two hours only to go and see a cup of which some archeologists (not all) have decide it might be from the time when Jesus lived.
And then what? It was a rather ornate golden cup with lots of jewels they showed on the picture in the paper. I suppose they added the jewels later, but Jesus and a golden cup, that doesn’t go together very well. Ah well. Also didn’t visit the cathedral, a giant Gothic one. The sculpted saints inside have their own need for a little siesta.
Was thinking of Dag, the Norwegian priest on the way to Leon. It was raining slowly but steadily, the kind of weather that makes it easy to contemplate. He told me he liked to use the Andersen story of the Princess on the pea, as one of the metaphors about the existence of God. God is the little pea that is reminding us the we need to keep our conscience clean. The things we have done wrong and not dealt with properly are the little peas that will keep on bothering us. I like that, although to define it as God is a rather semantic solution to a very humane, or even humanist, issue.
It doesn’t really matter. Dag also said that in religious matters the questions are more important than the answers. To focus on the answers is creating divisions. To focus on the questions creates bridges between different people. I also like that.
While walking around Leon there were posters of the Santa Semana (Holy Week) everywhere. That is a big deal in Spain, not only in Sevilla, where they seem to have the largest processions. That reminded me of another definition of belief that I like. It was from a sermon at Mount Michael, the Benedictine monastery close to Julie’s parents’ house. We would sometimes go to an early Easter mass there, a service that would start in the dark and it would turn light during the service. One time the sermon lasted a few sentences. Pointing at a flowering forsythia branch the priest said. ‘Believing is a complex issue. Everyone doubts now and then. That is completely natural. Look at this branch here. It seemed dead for such a long time. I started doubting that it would live again. But I trusted it would. And here it is blossoming.’ I have always thought that was poignant.
But if I understand Dag right, it doesn’t really matter how you define belief. That’s looking for answers. The questions really matter. And the questions that really matter are the ones that confront instead of ease your mind.
Maybe it’s the rain that causes these kind of thoughts, but just to putter through and think and rethink these things makes the experience rather pleasurable. 298 kilometres to go. There’s sun in the forecast, but there’s still room for a few days of rainy thoughts.