If you could walk with someone for a few days - dead or alive - who?

[David]

Hi all .. quiet time of the year, up here in England hunkered down against the winter wolf ... so .. idle thought and based on the dinner guest question.

If you could walk on Camino with someone for a few days, including dinners and wine ... they can be dead or alive, who would you choose and why?

For me it would be Thomas Aquinas for sure ... for his super bright mind, his wit, extraordinary clear thinking theology, and for him not being dogmatic

If he was busy (busy being dead) I would choose William Shakespeare - why? .. because, well, because it would be him! Himself! Think of the conversations we could have!

Have fun

 

[Maurice Frank]

Vincent Van Gogh

The Buddha

Jesus

 

[David]

Vincent Van Gogh

The Buddha

Jesus

Cool - but why?

 

[Maurice Frank]

Van Gogh to understand more about the man and his art, knowing he has a reputation as difficult to get along with

Buddha to learn from him

Jesus to understand what he meant to teach, not how his teachings are interpreted today

 

[Robo]

My Father. Too many conversations we never got to have.

 

[alexwalker]

Hi all .. quiet time of the year, up here in England hunkered down against the winter wolf ... so .. idle thought and based on the dinner guest question.

If you could walk on Camino with someone for a few days, including dinners and wine ... they can be dead or alive, who would you choose and why?

For me it would be Thomas Aquinas for sure ... for his super bright mind, his wit, extraordinary clear thinking theology, and for him not being dogmatic

If he was busy (busy being dead) I would choose William Shakespeare - why? .. because, well, because it would be him! Himself! Think of the conversations we could have!

Have fun

Me, David. Me.

 

[lalaone]

Isaac Newton. How his mind bridged the most brilliant levels of science and mathematics, to queries deeply spiritual, mystical and theological. How did these diverse studies and thoughts lend mutual inspiration? We'd start out the conversation with a question about the relationship between chemistry and alchemy, and he would take the lead from there

 

[Tincatinker]

Sir Patrick Michael (Paddy) Leigh Fermor DSO OBE. My hero ever since I read A Time of Gifts at about the age he was when he set out to walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople ( a destination that didn’t exist ).

A chance to have a conversation with that polymath, polyglot, tatterdemalion over a glass, bottle or jug and share tales of shepherds huts and cow byres, monasteries and barracks. I think I wouldn’t mind that most of it was myth. I just think it would be fun

 

[Bradypus]

I think I wouldn’t mind that most of it was myth. I just think it would be fun

That's why I would choose to walk with James Bell - my late maternal grandfather. A prodigious walker and a teller of tall tales that grew ever more polished and slightly less believable with each repetition! My other grandfather was born in Constantinople when it did exist...

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Henry David Thoreau. Maybe ask his walking and dinner buddy Ralph Waldo Emerson along too. I often walk where these men walked and I do imagine watching Thoreau and his brother rowing past our house. A Camino with them talking about philosophy, walking and nature would be enlightening. I'm certain though that if with Thoreau only it would have to be me picking up the tab for the dinners and wine.

 

[TravellingMan22]

Hi all .. quiet time of the year, up here in England hunkered down against the winter wolf ... so .. idle thought and based on the dinner guest question.

If you could walk on Camino with someone for a few days, including dinners and wine ... they can be dead or alive, who would you choose and why?

For me it would be Thomas Aquinas for sure ... for his super bright mind, his wit, extraordinary clear thinking theology, and for him not being dogmatic

If he was busy (busy being dead) I would choose William Shakespeare - why? .. because, well, because it would be him! Himself! Think of the conversations we could have!

Have fun

Great question!

Henry VIII I think! It wouldn’t be dull and he may well be a slower, and less fit than me! Fascinated by that era and him in particular.

 

[VNwalking]

Henry XIII

I assume you mean VIII?

 

[TravellingMan22]

I assume you mean VIII?

Oh blimey yes!!! Thanks!!!

 

[Damien Reynolds]

Jim Morrison.

 

[Harland2019]

Tina Turner - do I have to answer why?

 

[ranthr]

My husband perhaps.
For many years I walked several caminos, while he was fishing salmon in the river Tana next to our doorstep. Later on he said he regretted not coming with me when he still was able to walk a camino.
Too late now anyway.
I always walked alone and if walking with someone I would prefer a quiet person who did not have to talk all the time, since peace and quiet is what I like about the camino.

 

[steve392]

Lewis Hamilton - because he's more than just an F1 driver.

 

[Juspassinthru]

My maternal grandfather, gone now for 35 years. With my brother, the 3 of us explored the woods, canyons, rivers and lakes of central Texas. Learning about life, nature and how to be a decent person in a complex world. He would have loved the Camino in all of its ways. I still had (and have) so much to learn from him walking and talking in the countryside. I hope I can be as inspiring to my grandchildren as he was to me.

 

[Arctic_Alex]

When dreaming of walking with almost any historical figure from more than 300 years ago ... keep in mind you will most likely not understand a word they are saying even if they come from the same geographical region as you do
Ignoring that problem, it would be hard for me to choose as there are too many historical figures and commoners I would like to ask a lot about their times, history, their lives.

 

[ShoshTrvls]

John Ruskin - I would love to hear him talk about the architecture and landscapes as we walked through them

Oscar Wilde - He would definitely keep me entertained.

 

[MARSKA]

My mother

 

[steve392]

Billy Connolly - no explanation needed.

 

[davesfitforlife]

My Dad.
We never took a walk ever.
He's walked thousands of miles on his own as a peddler.
I think he would have liked it.

 

[dougfitz]

My goodness, this has made me realize just how much of an introvert I am. I cannot imagine starting a conversation with many of the wonderful people some of you have chosen. Perhaps if I met Paddy Fermor as a tatterdemalion I might have enjoyed walking with him. It is difficult for me to imagine him disguised like that, but he did survive on Crete in WWII, so he must have been able to disguise his Englishness somehow.

I must admit there are a few fellow forum members who I think would make remarkably good company, but rather than embarrass them with the prospect of having to walk and talk to me, that is a short list that I will keep close to my chest.

 

[OZAJ]

Tommy Cooper

 

[nycwalking]

My mom.

One more time.

 

[toffeerocksagai]

A big attraction of the camino is that I don't have to talk to anyone and won't be judged, but if I have to walk with someone it would be with my mum as a younger person, before the inequalities of her generation squashed her potential, before she married my dad who sapped her strength and warmth and before the dementia that took what remained. During the dementia's earlier stages I experienced the mum I had always craved - she was warm, smiled at me, was happy to see me... I like to think she returned to the person she was before an unfortunate life dimmed her light. It was a time I treasure and I would love to spend one to one time, getting to know my mum as the person she was, before life got in the way.

 

[Peregrinopaul]

Martin Sheen. (I might finally get to stay at El Molino near Hornillos.)

 

[steve392]

Tommy Cooper

But how would you walk?
Not like that‍, like this ‍.

 

[lalaone]

Very stirring responses. To walk with our parents... If I were able to walk with my mother...she'd probably love Isaac Newton too... That is impossible and has been for a long time, but if we had a walking song, it would be very simple and I can almost experience it now. I so appreciate the chance to imagine it, along with all the other great dreams here.

One April day, we′ll go miles away
And I'll turn to you and I′ll say:
"I've always loved you, in my way
I'll always love you, in my way."

 

[Frankybaby66]

Martin Sheen. (I might finally get to stay at El Molino near Hornillos.)

Yeah, walking the Camino is probably on his 'bucket list'

 

[J Willhaus]

I am with @dougfitz , there's a few forum members I'd like to walk with although I think you'd all have to slow down so I could keep up. Honestly, I'd just like to meet some of you interesting people in person.

 

[peregrino_tom]

This is a variation on the old question about who you'd invite to a dinner party, that used to be regular fare in corporate monthly staff magazines that had a 'spotlight on..' with 10 standard questions for some exemplary staff member. Do they still do that sort of thing?

The issue I always had with it was that you were never asked to specify an age for your guests (or walking companion/s). To take as an example PLF, as he's mentioned a couple of times above - would you walk with the the callow 19 yr old adventurer trekking alone across Europe as fascism took hold, the SOE officer working with the resistance in Crete in WW2, the apparently more diffident (reflective of what a bizarre life he had led?) man in his 50s who you can see on youtube when re-united with the Andartes and General Kreipe (who he kidnapped). Or the old grandee, holding court to adoring fans and aspiring travellers/writers in his greek villa?

In terms of great figures, I fancy walking the camino with Mahatma Gandhi in his 30s, George Cockburn in his 40s (after he had conveyed Napoleon to St Helena) and Maya Angelou in her 50s. Ideally I'd like all three of them together in my 'camino family', which imagine would be life affirming, challenging and with never a dull moment!

 

[woody66]

My Brother he is still alive ; but dementia has taken him away i want him back, so i can walk with him!

 

[Paladina]

Benny Rothman, the jailed leader of the 1932 Kinder Scout mass trespass in the (U.K.) Derbyshire Peak District. But for his bravery the Right to Roam movement would not have gained the (still limited) ground it has.

 

[Silvermomma]

When dreaming of walking with almost any historical figure from more than 300 years ago ... keep in mind you will most likely not understand a word they are saying even if they come from the same geographical region as you do
Ignoring that problem, it would be hard for me to choose as there are too many historical figures and commoners I would like to ask a lot about their times, history, their lives.

On camino we all converse in Latin, don't we?

 

[Bradypus]

On camino we all converse in Latin, don't we?

At the time of my first Camino there was a lot less English spoken in northern Spain. And I spoke almost no Spanish. I sometimes found myself cobbling together a sentence with bits of English, Spanish, French and even Latin in it!

 

[Silvermomma]

At the time of my first Camino there was a lot less English spoken in northern Spain. And I spoke almost no Spanish. I sometimes found myself cobbling together a sentence with bits of English, Spanish, French and even Latin in it!

That always works!

 

[60LifeChange]

My wife. Our plan was to walk the Camino when I retired. She convinced a room full of hospice and oncologists that she was going to go home, heal up and walk it with me this year. Unfortunately, life had different plans. I would gladly give my soul to accomplish that.

She will be with me, simply not in the form I would prefer. I will be spreading her remains across the globe as I walk this earth to celebrate her life and our lives together.

 

[G_the_D]

Hemingway for the stories of his beloved Spain, Darwin for deep discussions about what we have learned and Richard Dawkins for lively conversation with a wry wit.

 

[Annetom]

Great question!

Henry VIII I think! It wouldn’t be dull and he may well be a slower, and less fit than me! Fascinated by that era and him in particular.

My father, his family wintered in N Spain because North Wales was too cold! He could tell me about life there in those days.

 

[lt56ny]

Hi all .. quiet time of the year, up here in England hunkered down against the winter wolf ... so .. idle thought and based on the dinner guest question.

If you could walk on Camino with someone for a few days, including dinners and wine ... they can be dead or alive, who would you choose and why?

For me it would be Thomas Aquinas for sure ... for his super bright mind, his wit, extraordinary clear thinking theology, and for him not being dogmatic

If he was busy (busy being dead) I would choose William Shakespeare - why? .. because, well, because it would be him! Himself! Think of the conversations we could have!

Have fun

My Father. Too many conversations we never got to have.

This question is a no brainer for me. Part of the reason I walk is to hear him speak to me. No great guru or philosopher could give me greater understanding or insight to who I was and what was in the world and what I was capable of then this man. For sure virtually everyone but him would have given up on this young f*#k up but him.
My incredible DAD who I miss every day of my life. I never have fully recovered from the loss of losing him. I know he is always with me.

 

[Tony Lenton]

This is a variation on the old question about who you'd invite to a dinner party, that used to be regular fare in corporate monthly staff magazines that had a 'spotlight on..' with 10 standard questions for some exemplary staff member. Do they still do that sort of thing?

The issue I always had with it was that you were never asked to specify an age for your guests (or walking companion/s). To take as an example PLF, as he's mentioned a couple of times above - would you walk with the the callow 19 yr old adventurer trekking alone across Europe as fascism took hold, the SOE officer working with the resistance in Crete in WW2, the apparently more diffident (reflective of what a bizarre life he had led?) man in his 50s who you can see on youtube when re-united with the Andartes and General Kreipe (who he kidnapped). Or the old grandee, holding court to adoring fans and aspiring travellers/writers in his greek villa?

In terms of great figures, I fancy walking the camino with Mahatma Gandhi in his 30s, George Cockburn in his 40s (after he had conveyed Napoleon to St Helena) and Maya Angelou in her 50s. Ideally I'd like all three of them together in my 'camino family', which imagine would be life affirming, challenging and with never a dull moment!

Wow! Thanks for that. I’ve read about the capture of General Kreipe In the book by Stanley Moss. I had no idea they had later met and that it is on YouTube. Thanks for letting me know. I’ll look it up now.

 

[musicman]

Dolly Parton - humorous, charitable and musical.

 

[ShellToucher]

Hi all .. quiet time of the year, up here in England hunkered down against the winter wolf ... so .. idle thought and based on the dinner guest question.

If you could walk on Camino with someone for a few days, including dinners and wine ... they can be dead or alive, who would you choose and why?

For me it would be Thomas Aquinas for sure ... for his super bright mind, his wit, extraordinary clear thinking theology, and for him not being dogmatic

If he was busy (busy being dead) I would choose William Shakespeare - why? .. because, well, because it would be him! Himself! Think of the conversations we could have!

Have fun

Lol, this post looks familiar!

 

[Lynn C O'Hara]

Hi all .. quiet time of the year, up here in England hunkered down against the winter wolf ... so .. idle thought and based on the dinner guest question.

If you could walk on Camino with someone for a few days, including dinners and wine ... they can be dead or alive, who would you choose and why?

For me it would be Thomas Aquinas for sure ... for his super bright mind, his wit, extraordinary clear thinking theology, and for him not being dogmatic

If he was busy (busy being dead) I would choose William Shakespeare - why? .. because, well, because it would be him! Himself! Think of the conversations we could have!

Have fun

Jimmy Carter, our 39th president, who just passed on.
As a flight attendant for decades, I had the pleasure and privilege to fly kings, queens (yes, they flew commercially), former presidents, and the Beatles! But the greatest privilege of all was flying Jimmy Carter, the candidate, as he traveled the country campaigning.
He was so kind, compassionate, funny, generous, humble . He carried his own bags, asked for no special service, apologized to ME when he was late getting back to the plane from a rally. Someone gave him a thermos of Hoppin’ Johns—a southern meal of ham hocks and black eyed peas that is meant for good luck. He asked me to hold them for him overnight and he’d eat them on the plane the next day. Can you imagine a president doing that today?
All told, he exemplified everything I believe in and find when I walk my Caminos. Peace, no judgment, a sense of goodness. He was a saint in life and hopefully a guardian angel in the afterlife.

 

[Jodean]

This might sound odd, but I would like to walk with my dad, my adoptive father, and my 2 step-fathers to figure out what in the world they saw in my mother and why they married her. All, but my last step-father have passed away, and my adoptive father passed when I was only 12. My step-father who is still alive was a pedophile who sexually abused all his 5 children and after my mother died, I found out she knew about it before they married. He makes me want to vomit.
She was not a nice person, so have always been curious as to what they saw in her and if they could tell me the truth behind her many lies.

Otherwise, would like to walk a few days with Obama. He is so inspiring.

 

[RussB]

My Father. Too many conversations we never got to have.

Agree, theres never enough time to chat

 

[Paladina]

John Ruskin - I would love to hear him talk about the architecture and landscapes as we walked through them Oscar Wilde - He would definitely keep me entertained.

I hope you're a good listener: you'd never get a word in edgeways!

 

[batty]

Hi all .. quiet time of the year, up here in England hunkered down against the winter wolf ... so .. idle thought and based on the dinner guest question.

If you could walk on Camino with someone for a few days, including dinners and wine ... they can be dead or alive, who would you choose and why?

For me it would be Thomas Aquinas for sure ... for his super bright mind, his wit, extraordinary clear thinking theology, and for him not being dogmatic

If he was busy (busy being dead) I would choose William Shakespeare - why? .. because, well, because it would be him! Himself! Think of the conversations we could have!

Have fun

Hi all .. quiet time of the year, up here in England hunkered down against the winter wolf ... so .. idle thought and based on the dinner guest question.

If you could walk on Camino with someone for a few days, including dinners and wine ... they can be dead or alive, who would you choose and why?

For me it would be Thomas Aquinas for sure ... for his super bright mind, his wit, extraordinary clear thinking theology, and for him not being dogmatic

If he was busy (busy being dead) I would choose William Shakespeare - why? .. because, well, because it would be him! Himself! Think of the conversations we could have!

Have fun

 

[batty]

Hi all .. quiet time of the year, up here in England hunkered down against the winter wolf ... so .. idle thought and based on the dinner guest question.

If you could walk on Camino with someone for a few days, including dinners and wine ... they can be dead or alive, who would you choose and why?

For me it would be Thomas Aquinas for sure ... for his super bright mind, his wit, extraordinary clear thinking theology, and for him not being dogmatic

If he was busy (busy being dead) I would choose William Shakespeare - why? .. because, well, because it would be him! Himself! Think of the conversations we could have!

Have fun

My father, I lost him when i was 23, in life there are so many questions i never asked. I admired him tremendously, my life is molded by his believes but yet i never really knew him. I miss his still at 63! I wish i could walk, chat and get to know him in more ways then just my dad.
He also loved to walk and ponder quietly.

 

[mattythedog]

Sir Patrick Michael (Paddy) Leigh Fermor DSO OBE. My hero ever since I read A Time of Gifts at about the age he was when he set out to walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople ( a destination that didn’t exist ).

A chance to have a conversation with that polymath, polyglot, tatterdemalion over a glass, bottle or jug and share tales of shepherds huts and cow byres, monasteries and barracks. I think I wouldn’t mind that most of it was myth. I just think it would be fun

His books are tremendously convincing..???mostly myths???

 

[Bozobrien]

Sir Patrick Michael (Paddy) Leigh Fermor DSO OBE. My hero ever since I read A Time of Gifts at about the age he was when he set out to walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople ( a destination that didn’t exist ).

A chance to have a conversation with that polymath, polyglot, tatterdemalion over a glass, bottle or jug and share tales of shepherds huts and cow byres, monasteries and barracks. I think I wouldn’t mind that most of it was myth. I just think it would be fun

My answer as well, you beat me to it. Excellent choice

 

[elizason13]

Hi all .. quiet time of the year, up here in England hunkered down against the winter wolf ... so .. idle thought and based on the dinner guest question.

If you could walk on Camino with someone for a few days, including dinners and wine ... they can be dead or alive, who would you choose and why?

For me it would be Thomas Aquinas for sure ... for his super bright mind, his wit, extraordinary clear thinking theology, and for him not being dogmatic

If he was busy (busy being dead) I would choose William Shakespeare - why? .. because, well, because it would be him! Himself! Think of the conversations we could have!

Have fun

George Carlin

 

[elizason13]

George Carlin

 

[Tincatinker]

His books are tremendously convincing..???mostly myths???

Well, yes and no. He really did all that he does. He went there, did that, and very seldom even thought about buying the t-shirt.

It’s worth bearing in mind that he wrote A Time of Gifts perhaps 30 years after the events he describes. The events, few would ever forget: the conversations, few would recall. But a man so versed in Greek and Roman mythology. A man who could recall with precision the shape and heft of a path he walked on Mount Athos once in daylight such that he could walk it again in the dark of night. Well, maybe it isn’t all myth. Students of the Iliad might argue contrary-wise.

Paddy was a pilgrim never quite sure of his destination and easily distracted from his path. He also did things, see his DSO, that could or would only ever have been achieved by the feckless and the reckless.

Meanwhile, the curious might enjoy Artemis Cooper’s biography: available here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Patrick-Leigh-Fermor-Artemis-Cooper/dp/0719554497 but also from respectable book-sellers everywhere

 

[MesaWalker]

Two people. My deceased best friend from high school, John, an inveterate walker in Minnesota, no matter the weather, with a heart of gold. He would have loved the intimate conversations and living in the moment.

With a translator, Erasmus. Would love his insights on life, love, theology, nature, and everything else.

 

[Andre Peeters]

I would make the same choice as Tincatinker.
Sir Patrick Michael (Paddy) Leigh Fermor
will certainly bring me inspiration.

 

[Jarrad]

Saint James, of course! I have so many questions, not least of which is, "So this pilgrimage, what do you think of all of this?" I think the list of questions (serious and otherwise) one could ask Spain's patron saint could fill a separate thread.

 

[ROjeda]

Santiago, the Apostle, to hear from him what he makes of all of this.
My Father, we need to talk.
Jules Verne, hoping he admits me into his imagination.

 

[markie6]

Bilbo Baggins.

Good company , likes extra breakfasts.

 

[Teddie]

A duplicate of myself .... quietly listening

 

[AK2112]

Stephen Fry or Frank Zappa.

 

[Kirkie]

Bill Bryson. He owes me a lot. I am struggling through his Seeing Further. i think it might take a couple of times on the Camiino Francés...

 

[Arctic_Alex]

On camino we all converse in Latin, don't we?

My first "foreign" language was actually ancient Latin, and we had to learn to express ourselves in it, not just read / translate (a very traditional old Hogwarts-like school in Germany ) ... but to be honest ... I forgot it all. Decades of not using it.

 

[ShoshTrvls]

I hope you're a good listener: you'd never get a word in edgeways!

Probably true, but I wouldn't mind -- especially if he threw in a fable or fairy tale every so often.

"Now, look at those buttresses ... marvelous structures, you know that wood nymphs hide in them looking for children walking without their parents. Let me recite to you a poem about them ... right after we discuss that Pyrenean oak over there ..."

 

[Sherpa47]

Hi all .. quiet time of the year, up here in England hunkered down against the winter wolf ... so .. idle thought and based on the dinner guest question.

If you could walk on Camino with someone for a few days, including dinners and wine ... they can be dead or alive, who would you choose and why?

For me it would be Thomas Aquinas for sure ... for his super bright mind, his wit, extraordinary clear thinking theology, and for him not being dogmatic

If he was busy (busy being dead) I would choose William Shakespeare - why? .. because, well, because it would be him! Himself! Think of the conversations we could have!

Have fun

It would have to be my Mother and Father both now in Heaven, so I could thank them for the life they gave me and got to tell them how much I loved them.