She sells seashells
See that? That’s what REI stamped on my hand for entry and re-entry into their semi-annual “used equipment” (read: garage) sale. The fellow stamped it on the back of my hand. I looked down and my mouth opened in a little “o”. Before I knew it, words came out. That’s how that generally works with me. The brain runs faster than the mouth and stuff just comes out. Sometimes it’s a little embarrassing. I was bowled over and blurted, “That’s a pilgrim stamp!”
The REI guy eyed me as though I was bonkers, “I thought it was a shell.” I looked at him uncomprehendingly for a moment before I realized that the world outside of mine was not revolving around a pilgrimage to Spain. That the average person in the United States does not know what a pilgrimage is, let alone The Way of St. James, El Camino de Santiago, or in Galician: O Camiño de Santiago.
Score one for the husband.
Now, see that? That’s what the Camino markers actually look like. It’s the latest patch I’ll be sewing onto my backpack. I just recently got it. I have two patchess, the sword of St James through the shell and this one. I’m trying to keep it simple.
This isn’t easy for me. Thom once cleared sixty pairs of my shoes out of various nooks and hidden places in the main floor of the house, just the main floor. We won’t even count the closet. I’m bringing one pair of shoes and one pair of sandals, unheard of in the world of Francine. But I think that’s part of this journey, too. Shedding the excess staying close to the core.
The shell is the mark of the pilgrim. It was what the “original” carried to scoop and drink water with. The statue of Saint James at the cathedral in Seattle shows him as a pilgrim, carrying his staff, the gourd for carrying water hanging from the top and wearing his shell at his shoulder.
Wikipedia says: ” Medieval Christians making the pilgrimage to his shrine often wore a scallop shell symbol on their hat or clothes. The pilgrim also carried a scallop shell with him, and would present himself at churches, castles, abbeys etc., where he could expect to be given as much sustenance as he could pick up with one scoop.”
The symbols aren’t too complicated to figure out. People add more than they need to. Scallop shells are pretty. They can be quite large. They were used as a symbol of baptism since early Christianity. Pilgrimages are about going through and coming out the other side, changed, like baptism.
Symbols. Shells, Oceans, Eggs, Easter bunnies and ham… Who really cares? Extract your own meaning. Solly the Seagull says,
“…and keep it simple.”