Pilgrimage series

On BBC TV lately are 'celebrities', taking part in Pilgrimage programmes. What does anyone make of this idea of sending a bunch of people with a variety of beliefs or none, on this kind of journey? Each seeking answers to their questions.
Is it a useful exercise?

I am inclined to think it is just another way so called celebrities can seek attention and raise their profiles. They certainly don't lack confidence but listening to their conversations, I just felt cynical.

In Norway we have revived the pilgrimage route to Trondheim, and some of my friends like to walk as pilgrims to various places in Europe. It is a slow way of travelling more than a religious quest routed in Catholic traditions.

As I live close to a pilgrimage route, I have hosted many pilgrims on their way to Trondheim. Some do it to work out questions they are struggling with, like career choices. Some are recovering from burnouts. Another group is wanting a break from a busy lifestyle saturated with technology. Others have made it their lifestyle. And a few are making the walk as a prayer with a genuine hope of getting closer to God.

As a protestant the tradition's Catholic roots is troublesome, but I often walk (or roll with my wheelchair )the route from one church to another, enjoying the peace, nature and the history. I end my 2-hours trip sitting in front of a medieval church, clearing my head and praying when watching the sun set over a beautiful landscape. It is therapeutic to me, and if I were having an able body, I would probably do the whole 700 kms walk.

They also do similar types of walk from the Mediterranean region all the way to Spain.

These are, what I call, mid-life crisis walks because they’re done by people in middle age who are confused about the direction of their lives and looking for meaning.

And sometimes, during the journey they encounter Christ.
Others won’t.

My high school friend invited me to do this and I knew he was going through a midlife crisis because 7 years ago he had suicidal thoughts.

In Paris the ruta de Santiago begins at the tour San Jaques, and it is the very beginning of the Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
I recall this because the Tour San Jacques was dedicated to me by a Detective in the Paris police force, long story.
It was an informal dedication which took place atop of one of the towers of Notre Dame de Paris.

Now I live in Spain, and I see television coverage of the pilgrims often, but they seem to show mainly young folks. Perhaps they seek them out; I do not know.

Anywayus, that is my personalinteractionwith the stasrting point. You reminded me of it, otherwise it has not come to mind for me ain many decades. God bless all, amen.

I also try to recognize party groups or young people living up their lives with middle age men.
Also mid life crisis in Europe is usually earlier since the minimum drinking age is 16 or 18 in some places or some places where I grew up had no minimum age.
In USA the minimum drinking age is like 95 or something like that.

In either case, walks in nature draw you closer to God because He created nature but folks don’t do it for these reasons.
They do it to escape their lives, depression or a habit, or to simply have a party.

When someone identifies a "celebrity" for me I automatically shut them off. There are celebrities in this world, but they are never identified as such by popular culture. My celebrities are never known to the world, but only to the hungry, lost, lonely, isolated, sick and marginalized.

Point of order: this thread was intended as a discussion about the TV show, not about the trip.

I mean... Y'all can talk about whatever you want, but I thought I should mention that technically it IS off topic.

As for the TV show, I go with what that guy said many, many years ago. "Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote." Or in this case, let simpletons watch the shows that simpletons have produced.


As for the trip, I don't see how it can hurt and sometimes it can help. There's a lot of majesty in nature, when people put down their phones long enough to look at it.