Planetwalker

"The geographical pilgrimage is the symbolic acting out of an inner journey. The inner journey id the interpolation of the meaning and signs of the outer pilgrimage, one can have one without the other. It's best to have both." ~Thomas Merton, 1964

"On January 17, 1971, I witnessed a crude oil spill of nearly half a million gallons in the waters near the Golden Gate Bridge. The oil spill was my first experience with a major environmental insult. As I drove my car over the Golden Gate I felt some responsibility for the mess washing up onto the shore. It was nearly a year afterwards, still feeling this responsibility, that I gave up the use of motorized vehicles and started walking.

My community took note. Then to end the almost constant bickering and arguments with my friends as to the question of whether one person walking could make a difference, I stopped speaking and spent a day in silence. My life altered. As that day of silence stretched out before me, I realized I had begun a pilgrimage, an outer and inner journey, walking and sailing around the world, as part of my education dedicated to raise environmental consciousness, and promote earth stewardship and world peace."

These are the opening paragraphs of the book Planetwalker, the memoir of John Francis, and thus began a pilgrimage of foot and silence that was to last 22 years in total. Francis went without speaking for 17 years and walked for 22. In the process, he also got himself a Masters degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana (Missoula) and a PhD in land management from the University of Wisconsin (Madison). (Note: Yes, he did both degrees during his years of silence.) He has walked all over North and South America, indeed all the way to Cape Horn, the very south tip of South America.

I just started this book a couple of days ago, and it looks to be an extraordinary tale of an extraordinary man.

Pilgrimage, inner and outer. I have long been about them both, and so this book struck a particular chord with me when I first saw it. I look forward to what it may teach me.