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

[CaminoCate]

Tommy Cooper

Just like that….

 

[TravellingMan22]

Jane Austen (though the dress, shoes and bonnet would be difficult) just to tell her how famous she’d become)

John Keats, he’d notice scenery I didn’t and write a beautiful poem I couldn’t.

Alan Bennett and Victoria Wood for laughs and similar accent to mine.

George Michael for music.

Also the regular folks like me I meet on the way and connect with and talk with and never forget.

I think my music choice would be Bruce Dickinson. I am not particularly a Maiden fan but I attended a gig of theirs lately and he (and they) was incredible! He s a pilot too so maybe he could fly me home!

 

[David Tallan]

I am assuming language would not be an issue and communication would not be a problem.

Moses. Because I would never have to worry about wet feet.

 

[ShoshTrvls]

Most definitely Christopher Hitchens

Most definitely Christopher Hitchens

Interesting choice for a religious pilgrimage. 30 days of debating whether or not g-d exists would probably do me in.

 

[simply B]

My late paternal grandfather - had a 4th grade education in Ireland before working his passage out of Cobh as a shipbuilder's apprentice. Smartest person I ever have met and I have known captains of industry. I would like to know how he pre-figured out so much of current affairs with such a humble origin. (He passed in '75)

C. S. Lewis - I have some questions for him...

James Howard Kunstler - an American essayist of articulate and gentle demeanor with weighty opinions on the existing structure of life in USA. Were I to score including him with the first two? Then I would not have to say a word, but I would have the joy of listening.

B

 

[RobinGore]

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

Henry David Thoreau. I would ask him about all the books he read ... what influenced him most to go to Walden and write such a masterpiece about life. I would tell him that the Camino is my "Walden". I'll be the one with the hot pink Thoreau T-shirt if you see me on the trail in May/June ;-)

 

[Paladina]

It

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.

I doubt that your Latin is lost beyond recovery. It’s usually a case of ‘first in, last out’ and vice versa. I can still recite the declensions, conjugations and dull beginning of Caesar’s Gallic Wars Book 1, learnt by heart in the 1960s — a very ‘old school’ approach to language acquisition! — whereas I now struggle to recall the Spanish I studied, supposedly to the same level, a mere six years ago. Perhaps the school’s Spanish teacher, whom I rejected in favour of a chain-smoking Russian teacher, should be my guide on a future Camino. At least she’d be physically and linguistically fit for the purpose.

 

[Arctic_Alex]

It

I doubt that your Latin is lost beyond recovery. It’s usually a case of ‘first in, last out’ and vice versa. I can still recite the declensions, conjugations and dull beginning of Caesar’s Gallic Wars Book 1, learnt by heart in the 1960s — a very ‘old school’ approach to language acquisition! — whereas I now struggle to recall the Spanish I studied, supposedly to the same level, a mere six years ago. Perhaps the school’s Spanish teacher, whom I rejected in favour of a chain-smoking Russian teacher, should be my guide on a future Camino. At least she’d be physically and linguistically fit for the purpose.

Iremember .... Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, (...)
You are right, it is not lost beyond recovery, but it would be a long way ;-) However, it helps to at least partially understand Portuguese and to some extent Spanish Newspapers.

I am now trying to learn the basics of Spanish, but alas, language learning used to be so much easier when I was still young...

 

[Shelz]

My sister, I lost her in 2021 to breast cancer and I miss her dearly
Along for the journey I would also invite Betty White AND Anthony Bourdain
I mean could you imagine??? The joy and laughter Betty would bring to the table
and Anthony's sense of culinary adventure and ability to really experience the local culture.
It would be a fabulous Camino for many reasons ❤

 

[Skinnybiker]

Ha, I've never played this game, some interesting characters, PLF resonates with me as well. Here goes;

Rory Stewart (Politics on the edge & The places in between) to teach me how politics "works". I would have to ride while he walks cos he's a 40k / day hiker. He also hosted a podcast "The long history of ignorance" so maybe he can fill in a few blanks?

Karl Marx or any extraordinary economist to explain how economics works.

Aristotle, Socrates, Alan Watts or any other polymath / philosopher who could explain the workings of philosophy & religion.

Those three would keep me going for a few more years.

 

[Juspassinthru]

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

After reading these compelling comments, responses and stories, I’m reminded that I need to make those walks and have those talks now so that in future years, one of my children, grandchildren, friends or wife isn’t wishing they had or we had done just that. I hope, some day in the distant future, when reflecting on me, the conversation begins with, remember that time…

So, for me, I’m going to do it now, whenever I can.

 

[HappyValerie]

I think earlier someone mentioned walking to Santiago with St James. I wonder how he would feel walking to his own shrine? Interesting conversation.

 

[Roland49]

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?

Have fun

Deceased: Dante Alighieri. Just out of personal curiosity of that sharp minded medieval Philosopher.
Alive: my son. Obvious reasons. He may need a time off (as many young folks).

 

[toffeerocksagai]

P.S. I just thought of someone many of us know virtually. I would absolutely love to spend a day walking with Margaret Meredith, @mspath! She was the first person I saw virtually on the forum when I first began lurking in 2015 and I devoured her Camino blog. I would love to hear more of her stories of walking in winter in the earlier years. She is a forum treasure.

I think it was a post from mspath, a while ago, that really had an impact on my life attitude... Having walked from Sarria to Santiago as a test run, I returned home craving more and was frustrated by my inability to take the time out to do the full walk... It was mspath who made me realise I am blessed to have the emotional connections that need my time and keep me at home.. I am blessed that I have the ability to love someone so much that I don't want to be parted from them. The frustration lifted and and left a sense of gratitude that still remains. I will do my Camino, but creatively in a way that works for me and mine so.. back on topic... I would also love to spend a bit of time talking and walking with mspath.. to show gratitude, to learn and to grow

 

[JimDerry]

One more with my wife.......

 

[greggfr]

Got to be Oliver Reid, I'd love to share a beer with him..

 

[JustOneGuy]

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

As soon as I read the title of this thread, Isaac Newton came to mind, too. I am a physicist and consider him the greatest mind that ever lived, one who - did you know? - even found a way to save the pound back in the day by promoting, as director of the English Mint, the knurling on coins to prevent them from being filed down to steal precious metal.

But then I thought again. I have read several biographies of the character, and beyond his superintelligence, frankly I would not want to walk with him. Apart from the fact that he would probably refuse (another remarkable thing about Newton is that he lived his whole life within a 50-mile radius around London, which by the way proves that anyone who thinks that to do anything good you have to travel is very wrong ), but then he was not exactly an easy person. He would hardly be going to talk. Back in the day, by the way, the results you got were kept tucked away in a desk drawer, certainly not published on Nature or MNRAS. And it is said that anyone who tried in any way to thwart him was famously destroyed. So, not exactly the kind of person you want to spend a couple of weeks with.

Alternatively perhaps, again among physicists, I'd like to walk a Camino with... Richard Feynman, also a physicist, also very brilliant, but unlike Newton very funny and really human (reading suggestion: "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character" and the other popular books written by him).

Or maybe with good old Alan Turing, who by the way, being someone who used to run marathons, as well as being considered the civilian who helped the most to save us from Nazifascism, would be very fit and also have a lot of stories to tell. Although a probably rather ... ENIGMA-tic fellow

 

[Peregrinopaul]

Got to be Oliver Reid, I'd love to share a beer with him..

It is unlikely that anyone ever shared A beer with OR.

 

[André Walker]

Although no one in particular comes to mind, I think I'd prefer to walk with someone who is still alive. I don't think I'd manage carrying a dead body around and a backpack as well.

 

[Kirkie]

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

David, I think you have hit the top note with this question.
My instinctive answer was influenced by my current reading challenge.
To now be totally honest, my answer?
My every time walking companion.
I would never have embarked on my camino life without her, nor in fact without another forum member’s invaluable encouragement.
As is often said where I live, tanx, pal.

 

[Tincatinker]

Got to be Oliver Reid, I'd love to share a beer with him..

A beer. No chance

 

[Levi]

My mother. Even though as a strict fundamentalist Protestant she would be horrified at the thought of a pilgrimage.
But I think she would enjoy it in reality.

Isn't it touching how many of us would love a chance to walk with a parent...

 

[chinacat]

Ah, David, I just can’t whittle it down


I’d choose:

Compte de St Germain (for his stories)

Novalis (for his deep, mystical spirituality & his knowledge of love)

Maggie Smith (for her humour)

Dervla Murphy (for her chat & resilience)

Virginia Wolff (for her extraordinary mind and use of language)

Nina Simone (to sing to me)

Gerry Garcia (to play for me)

My father (who was a great walker & for deep conversation)

PLF (in Crete)

Raphael (for his expression of his understanding/knowledge of the human and the divine and to discover more of his biography)

Iris Murdoch (to explore that extraordinary mind)

Katherine Hepburn (for her wit & aged beauty)

Audre Lourde (for her uncompromising use of language)

A Cathar woman (to learn of their true beliefs and their persecution)


& Kathleen Raine, because she wrote this:


NIght Sky

There came such clear opening of the night sky
The deep glass of wonders, the dark mind,
In unclouded gaze of the abyss
Opened like the expression of a face.
I looked into that clarity where all things are
End and beginning, and saw
My destiny there.

“So,” I said, “no other
was possible ever. This
Is I. The pattern stands
so for ever.”

What am I? Bound and unbounded
A pattern among the stars, a point in motion
Tracing my way.

I am my way; It is I.
I travel among the wonders.
Held in that gaze and known
In the eye of the abyss.

“Let it be so,” I said,
And my heart laughed with joy
To know the death I must die.

Kathleen Raine


*******


… and a few open-hearted members of this forum.

 

[JustOneGuy]

Deceased: Dante Alighieri. Just out of personal curiosity of that sharp minded medieval Philosopher.

Dante Alighieri??? Mmmhhh... not a wise choice:

"Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita."

Incipit of the Divina Commedia, by Dante Alighieri. Translated to English as:

"In the midst of the journey of our life
I found myself through a dark forest,
For the straight way was lost."

I strongly advise not to follow his directions and bring with you a good GPS watch in case...

 

[Bogong]

I think I posted Joanna Lumley but I don’t know what happened to it. Probably censored.(very lovely lady of absolute class). But how about Jeremy Bentham? Good to get him off his chair for a bit of decent exercise rather than just shuffling down to the table once a year for the Annual General Meeting!

 

[JustJack]

St James so I can ask him what he thinks about the story of his remains being in Spain.

 

[Bozobrien]

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!

I found myself doing that at the "Running of the Bulls" in Pamplona in 77 . No French but otherwise the same. Priceless.

 

[Skinnybiker]

Got to be Oliver Reid, I'd love to share a beer with him..

A beer or six?

 

[Roland49]

Dante Alighieri??? Mmmhhh... not a wise choice:
I strongly advise not to follow his directions and bring with you a good GPS watch in case...

Wouldn't follow HIS directions .
The yellow arrows are sufficient enough.

And of course, I wouldn't talk about the Divine Comedy, 'nuff said about it.
There is a lot of other brilliant input.

 

[Kirkie]

I think I posted Joanna Lumley but I don’t know what happened to it. Probably censored.(very lovely lady of absolute class). But how about Jeremy Bentham? Good to get him off his chair for a bit of decent exercise rather than just shuffling down to the table once a year for the Annual General Meeting!

Post no 68

 

[kfw]

The people twenty feet ahead.

 

[David Tallan]

Dante Alighieri??? Mmmhhh... not a wise choice:

"Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita."

Incipit of the Divina Commedia, by Dante Alighieri. Translated to English as:

"In the midst of the journey of our life
I found myself through a dark forest,
For the straight way was lost."

I strongly advise not to follow his directions and bring with you a good GPS watch in case...

You are making me rethink my Moses choice.

I had picked him for the chance to find out what really happened, and because too much of my last Camino was navigating water on the trail. But now I am reminded that he spent 40 years lost in the Sinai. Oh well, I will have my GPS.

 

[JustOneGuy]

Wouldn't follow HIS directions .

Good idea: could end up in Hell.

 

[VNwalking]

I strongly advise not to follow his directions and bring with you a good GPS watch in case

Bring Vergil.
And be prepared for a detour through the circles of the inferno.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

You are making me rethink my Moses choice.

I had picked him for the chance to find out what really happened, and because too much of my last Camino was navigating water on the trail. But now I am reminded that he spent 40 years lost in the Sinai. Oh well, I will have my GPS.

And Moses had Mrs Moses who finally asked for directions.

 

[Roland49]

Good idea: could end up in Hell.

That is still debatable. Therefore I would walk with him...