I have been a hermit for a lot of years now. I feel a need to at least try and rejoin society, but I quite honestly do not know how to go about it. Having been told long ago by a close friend that the air curdles when I walk into a room, I do not have a lot of confidence. I already feel clumsy and “obvious” among strangers, how much more will I feel so in the pilgrims’ shelters--struggling to find a place, jostling my big old backpack, trying to create a semblance of comfort by rearranging my sleeping bag, flashlight, and twenty-eight-by-thirty-four-inch ultra-lightweight towel just so?
Let’s say that I do try and forge some basic relationships with peregrinos in Camino society; will there be the typical separation because of culture and class? Will they trust me and I them? Am I up for the vetting? Briggs Meyer says I am Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging. I wonder what that will translate as when I need to share a table with a stranger or am told that the bunks are all taken and I have to sleep on the floor.
As a kid it helped to have stilts and a hula hoop to entice affections. (I once gave a fourth grader my entire silver dollar collection; he gave me his divorced mother’s wedding ring.) But now I am short on friend-prizes to give out and would not have space for them in my rucksack if I had them. All the same, I am hoping to make new friends for the while I am traveling St. James’s Way, and for even longer, should I find myself so blessed.
Let’s say that I do try and forge some basic relationships with peregrinos in Camino society; will there be the typical separation because of culture and class? Will they trust me and I them? Am I up for the vetting? Briggs Meyer says I am Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging. I wonder what that will translate as when I need to share a table with a stranger or am told that the bunks are all taken and I have to sleep on the floor.
As a kid it helped to have stilts and a hula hoop to entice affections. (I once gave a fourth grader my entire silver dollar collection; he gave me his divorced mother’s wedding ring.) But now I am short on friend-prizes to give out and would not have space for them in my rucksack if I had them. All the same, I am hoping to make new friends for the while I am traveling St. James’s Way, and for even longer, should I find myself so blessed.
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