As I write this, soccer fans from all over the globe will have just returned
home from their pilgrimage to the World Cup in Brazil, Tennis fans will be
reliving their pilgrimage to Wimbledon and Cricket fans are at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton. Committed gardeners will be planning
their pilgrimage to next year’s Chelsea Flower Show. It is not just religious faiths
that have pilgrimages: but what is it that makes a good one?
What sporting, religious and any other pilgrimage have in
common is that they are journeys to somewhere meaningful to the pilgrim; they
are a special, usually long-distance, trek to somewhere or something that it
beyond the ordinary. Pilgrimages are about stepping outside our daily
existence, giving ourselves the opportunity to experience this particular
journey with more depth, more meaning that we would normally engage with life.
Given how routine and ordinary day-to-day worlds tend to be, probably explains
why so many individuals choose to make a pilgrimage at least once in their
life. It is a personal quest, a commitment as much to oneself as to whatever
our end-point is.
And, in good paradoxical manner, pilgrimages are also about
companionship: they are shared journeys with companions who share the passion
and intent of this particular journey – be it
a world championship or sacred shrine. Through common commitment and
interest a pilgrimage enables each individual to feel what it is like to be
part of a collective: that unique sense of being part of something greater than
oneself.
Pilgrimages also, by their nature, tend to be long journeys
lasting many days, weeks or even months. Often over unknown and difficult
terrain they test our resourcefulness, patience, courage and faith. As such,
the real journey of a pilgrimage is a ‘journey to self’, an opportunity to find
out what we can do . . . when freed from life’s routine. How do we cope with
the back-pack or throbbing blisters that threaten the enjoyment of the process?
On a pilgrimage there is no turning back, no denial of such pains: but an
honest facing of the realities of the moment, be it whilst lost and alone on a deserted mountain . . .
or during a profound moment of bliss . . . as you feel at one with your fellow pilgrims.
