Day 42 – Plodding On to Portomarin

Up at 6:30 AM to beat the heat (96) today.

Dave loves early morning getaways!

Sarria is celebrating its Corpus Christi festival

with amazing flower carpets all over the streets.

The Blessed Sacrament (Eucharist) is honored.

We  have made it over the first major hill

and are above the fog. Still kinda dark.

Dave met a guy named Mark who grew up

in his neighborhood near Chicago, Illinois.

They recalled Northwestern U games, the

Chicago Cubs, and their championship. He's

the 3rd person Dave's met from that area.

Tree on the trail to Portomarin.

Craggy, old, and beat up. 

(Mike, we mean.)

We have made it to the 100-kilometer mark!

60 miles to Santiago de Compostela!!

This is an unofficial 100-kilometer marker,

next to an official ice cream bar (and its eater).

Along the trail, a freshly finished field.

Witch way to Santiago?

We see many  buildings with a Galician,

Dolmen-style entrance. A large stone

above and vertical stones on each side,

supporting a doorway. A strong base.

(story from Dave later)

Portomarin in the distance. Getting warm!

Horn sounds for the sailing club's first regatta.

Dave's money is on the white sailboat.

45 steps up to old town! At the end of our hike,

this did not look fun. Dripping wet by the end.

A drink with Mark from Dave's home town.

Church of San Xoan of Portomarin, a temple-

fortress of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.

Romanesque exterior, same church. Rebuilt from

the original, now submerged under Balesar reservoir.

Tomorrow we hit up Palas de Rei. A

15 1/2-mile walk, bringing us to 45 to go!

A story from Dave: 

We have recently been seeing some very old buildings that have been around for hundreds of years and are still standing. The entrances to these Galacian Dolmen-type buildings have large stones on each side and across the top of the entrance. From this strong entrance, upon this solid base, the rest of the structure is built. 

Today is Father's Day, and I couldn't help thinking about my father. He was a kind, considerate, honest and soft-spoken man, who totally loved his children. We were lucky to have such a man in our lives. I remember one time when I was young, I was feeling particularly blue and sorry for myself. Can't remember what was wrong, but my dad recognized my mood and sat down to tell me a story. On his way to work one day in downtown Chicago, he was crossing the bridge over the Chicago River when he heard the clearest and sweetest whistle. It was "My Alice Blue Gown," a song made popular in the 1920s. My dad looked for the source of this beautiful music and finally saw a blind man walking with his white cane, coming from the other side and finding his way through the crowd. My dad was impressed that a man with such a disability could be so cheerful, and he could tell that everyone else's spirits were lifted by the man's song. Dad, in his soft-spoken way and as usual, had given me a message. Nothing else needed to be said. 

I was blessed to be built upon a strong foundation.

 I miss him.

Allan Anderson

1912-1991

A thought from Sue:

The Twelve Maybes of Mental Illness
©2017 Susan Noyes Anderson

If you are mentally ill...  

1. People may not respect your intelligence, even when it equals or exceeds theirs.
2. People may discount your pain, simply because they have never felt and cannot imagine it. 
3. People may condemn your actions, lacking the vision to see beyond their own frames of reference.
4. People may hurt your feelings by being unfeeling, failing to comprehend that you (like everyone else) need and deserve support.
5. People may expect you to change your mood with attitude or snap out of it, not realizing (and aren't they fortunate?) that some moods are neuro-chemical in nature and cannot be "thought" or even "acted" away.
6. People may dismiss the difficult challenges inherent in taking psychiatric medication, never considering that man's feeble attempt to change chemicals in the brain is a relatively new and imperfect science, subject to all kinds of vagaries including unexpected side effects and grueling, un-forewarned withdrawal.
7. People may accuse you of being "too dramatic," taking for granted their own blessing of a balanced brain chemistry and enough well-being to choose how much feeling they want to bring to the table at any given moment. 
8. People may patronize, pre-judge, or talk down to you, mistakenly assuming your illness trumps your humanity.
9. People may not really listen to you or your experience, their minds being too narrow or fearful to accommodate either one.
10. People may not recognize or empathize with your struggle; some lack the capacity, the will, and the wisdom to do so.
11. People may not validate you, for validation would irrevocably open their eyes and minds to the often harsh realities of mental illness.
12. People may avoid you––afraid of what, deep inside, they know––that it could have been them or someone they love struggling with mental illness instead of you.

          If you are not mentally ill...

          Try not to be the people in 1-12 above. 

           It's a disease, not a decision.

To not have your suffering recognized is an almost unbearable from of violence. 

–Andrei Lankov

Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike. 

– J.K. Rowling

Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.

–E.B. White

Let's be the people they need!

Click below to support mental health and

suicide prevention, the causes Mike and Dave

are championing with their walk.