Travelling and pilgrimage

Akko Old Town 29 November 2010

Many have pondered this difference before me but as we trundled up the Nablus Rd trailing our suitcases this morning I become aware of the difference between travelling and being a pilgrim. When I'm travelling, in particular as a tourist, I'm hyper alert, afraid of missing out on "the shot" or whatever must see sights the books or my research or memory dictates. I feel anxious, not wanting to miss a moment – and because I'm human that gives way to frustration with myself – for it is not humanly possible have every recommended experience. Nor would it be good for one either- however the desire for having it all remains, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The day in the desert so beloved by most of the group was in many ways about having all the experiences possible – a way to feel alive, we were storing up riches not of the monetary kind but of the experiential kind. I wonder if we'd had more time if we'd have found time to store up the reflective kind too.

Anyway it seems to me, at this starting out point of the pilgrimage (well the practice few days really as we don't start the course til evening of 1^st December), that being a pilgrim is about bringing a sense of looking with the heart or the soul – I'm not good at this, in tourist mode I got yelled at by a man as we came into Akko because he offered help and we walked past – I didn't want to be hassled but he was genuinely offering help and I'd offended him. In my own defense I have to say being a country where the 19 year olds are all dressed in military uniforms and carry a machine gun with their backpacks hasn't helped me feel like I could ask for help at all. I sense that being a pilgrim isn't about going to particular places rather it's about a particular way of going. I'm going off into Akko to try and go well now.