Markina to Gernika, part 1

Gernika is more than a bar that serves great crocettas in Boise’s Basque Block. Gernika is actually a sister-city to Boise and is located a long day’s walk from Markina and an even longer walk to Bilbao. 

Gernika has a special oak tree where the town elders would assemble to make decisions for the Basque people. Through the years this tree has been the center for political decisions for the Basque people and a symbol of their freedom. Bonnie and I visited the trunk of the “Old Tree” that is now protected in a shrine. 

We also visited the tile reproduction of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, an enormous painting he created as a response to the bombing of this city during the Spanish Civil War by Nazi Germany. It shows scenes of chaos, pain and death. It is a powerful anti-war statement and sobering to take in while standing in the city that experienced this terror that killed so many of its citizens. 

We also took in the black and white photo exhibit that shows the devastation of the bombing. The only thing I had hoped to experience, but we didn’t arrive in time to see, was the Peace Museum and its exhibits about that status of peace in the world today.

My soul is troubled, not just by the history of that bombing, but with the news reports of others this week. Why in God’s name are we spending so much on the making of war and so little on the humanity in our streets and cities? And it isn’t just my soul that is troubled, there is graffiti all over the Basque countryside condemning Israel for being like Nazi Germany in their vicious dehumanizing of the Palestinian people. It is a stinging comparison by the Basques, who themselves have a history of their innocents being victims of violence.

Still glad you are reading my Camino musings? As the Irish poet Bono once said in a concert:

“Am I buggin’ you?

I didn’t mean to bug ya.

Okay, Edge, play the blues.”

***

Speaking of the Irish, we had a wonderful communal dinner last night with a pilgrim from Ireland. She has been walking the Via Podiensis Camino from Le Puy, France and today was her last stage. As we ate together she told us her story. She worked as a nurse throughout her career but got burned out during the Covid epidemic. Those two years felt like ten years to her, so as soon as she could she retired. She then began taking care of her mom who was in her nineties. She and her other family members would rotate going to their childhood home to take care of her. Sheila had planned a two-week holiday where she would start the Camino in Le Puy and then intended to come home to her mom. She passed before Sheila left, so she decided she could walk longer as she had no one to rush back for.

I asked her how she was doing processing her grief. She said this last week it has been difficult knowing she would be returning back to Ireland.

“There is home, and there is home-home. Home is where you currently live. Home-home is where you are from - your place and your childhood home, but really what it stands for is your parents. Going home will never be the same for me as it will never include my mum again.”

She apologized for crying at the table, but we showed her that we were too.

Home-home and grief. 

Thank you, Sheila.

***

Speaking of grief, last year Bonnie and I met a wonderful Danish man on our first day walking from Oviedo on the Primitivo Camino. We leapfrogged those first couple of days, but then stayed together in the same Albergue on the second night. We learned he was on his first Camino in order to grieve his 18-year old son who had passed of cancer. Though it had been a few years he felt stuck in his grief, and thought walking a solo Camino might provide some healing or at least some meaningful space. 

It hadn’t been that long since Alex had passed, so Bonnie and I could both really relate to his pain. One night we met up with him for dinner and asked him if he’d like to tell us about his son. It was a beautiful night of stories as this Dad with a tender heart shared his love for his son and what had made him so special. 

We celebrated together at another dinner in Santiago after finishing our Caminos and have kept in touch since. He told me it was difficult to get his friends and family to understand all that had happened to him on his pilgrimages, but that he was trying to let the experience into his heart and be open to sharing it however he could.

Today he reached out to me and shared that he will be back to Spain next week for a different Camino routes, this time with his girlfriend and his younger son.

These Camino connections are simply special. I’m not convinced that it is about Spain, the specific routes, or any of the religious rituals. But when you take time off to disconnect from chaos and connect with nature and each other, it creates space for learning, listening, growing, and moving forward.

Ultreia et Suseia!Read more