Brits vs Americans “Sing Off”

7/4/22

What do you do on the Fourth of July when you’re in Spain? You have a Westside story “Jets vs Sharks” style celebration, of course!

We all met in the Irish pub in Artugo, Spain and began singing.

This was hysterical. The Brits sang “God save the Queen” and Americans sang “Star Spangled Banner.” We were blown away when the Brits Peregrino stood up and started singing, “You’ll be back” from Hamilton in perfect acapella.

(4th of July, Brits vs Americans “sing off”)

Walking, listening, thinking

I’m walking while listening to Trevor Noah’s “Born a Crime.” He just finished talking about when he would watch TV As a child. He and his mom loved to  watch Rescue 911 with William Shatner. 

The voice over the television would be in an African dialect, something that he was familiar with. But then if he wanted to, he would mute the TV and listen to the simulcast which would be in a different dialect, one that appeared strange and unfamiliar to him. He often thought the new dialect unrelatable. 

This part is interesting to me because it infers that if someone looks like me but sounds different from me, it causes me to quicken my judgment stating, “We’re different and therefore unrelatable.” In other words, we as humans may feel like we have less in common with them. Us and Them syndrome.

On the contrary, if someone sounds like me but looks different from me, then there’s this language interpretation perception that infers “I can trust that person a little bit more.” 

“Hmmmm, interesting”

“Are you alright, Amy? You’re sounding a little whacky!”

I am bringing this up because I am in a place conducting a little (non-validated) informal experiment on “Who Looks and Sounds the same?” and “Who Looks and Sounds different?” and is there judgment underlying any of my perceptions? (Is there discrimination or racism involved?) 

Everyone here looks and sounds different and yet there is no perception of distrust, only cooperation. 

“Hmmm, are you sure?”

“Well… no perception of such.”

As mentioned in my previous newsletters, as of late, America has really demonstrated its struggle with diversity. The irony, of course, is that diverse is what our Founding Fathers designed our country to be! (I don’t think it was an accident when Lin-Manuel designed The musical Hamilton to represent many different countries on stage. I mean, in reality EVERYONE was an immigrant to America.) 

America has a lot of healing to do over the next couple of decades. As we all become more blended and less divided, there needs to be an open-mindedness that allows for acceptance of diversity rather than exception of diversity (at the moment I feel like I’m in a microcosm experiment that embraces this concept.)

As my friend Jules always says, ”Peace is Possible.”

Meesta

Meseta, approaching a finish line 

We have entered the final third of our trip! We have completed the Meseta which is flat and looks very much like Idaho or Wyoming.

We are now in the mountainous areas of Spain. It’s beautiful and reminds us of home! The lavender is out and the hills are green and the bees are buzzing but they don’t seem to bother us at all. We’re walking on a rocky trail dirt and similar to walking in the riverbed. 

Michael and I are both back in our shoes and blister free. This is a miracle. I think we’re going to end our Camino with better feet than when we began! All the medicines that we have been using, pharmaceutical remedies and homeopathic solutions together, have led to the betterment of  strong and blister-free feet. 

We realize that we will be done with our trek next week. I can’t believe how fast it’s going! There are people that we hope to see again: the family of five girls who are walking, the family of five boys who are cycling, friends that we started off the Camino with who we haven’t seen since those early days but we’ve been in touch with via WhatsApp. Hope to see them all at the end! 

Part of me visualizes sitting in the middle of the Camino Santiago plaza in front of the church and just staying there for hours and hours and hours awaiting the arrival of friends. We do have an Albergue lined up for that night in Santiago so we can see the pilgrim mass the following day. 

Paregrino Camraderie 

One of my favorite happenstance joyful moments happens any time I come upon a Paregrino playing music I’m familiar with. 

One such occasion was when a gentleman played “Tea for the Tillerman” by Cat Stevens. 

Strangers who happen to share an affinity to ‘70’s music started singing together while briefly walking side-by-side. We couldn’t converse, but we could still share the lyrics of a beloved album. 

Later that day my husband passed the gentleman while he was playing music. Without informing me of his experience, Michael started to sing along with him as well. They sang together for a little bit and then Michael passed him and the singing stopped. It was a moment of continuity, a moment of shared commonness. A flash of something that can never be duplicated.  

This week's favorite Peregrino story includes a man who is walking from Frankfurt Germany.

He's been walking a long time. He said his heart is a problem so he just keeps walking, hoping he can strengthen it. Or perhaps he’s walking because he has a sad heart, or he’s walking because he knows his heart may give out soon. 

Whatever the reason is, he’s walking, walking, walking. 

And so are we.