Need Versus Want

If the Camino teaches you nothing else, it teaches you that there is a big difference between real needs versus wants.

• You need a good backpack that fits well and carries the weight on your hips instead of shoulders.
• You need a good pair of shoes, boots or sandals that you have broken in prior to the Camino and support your feet without blisters.
• You need food and water as you walk.  If there aren’t villages during your walk for the day, you need to prepare for it by bringing water and food with you.
• You need a place to lay your head at night to get the rest you’ll need to continue on The Way.

Just about everything else falls into what we want – an extra sweater or pair of pants, a particular food we are craving, a decent Internet connection.

The Camino erases the consumer mind filled with all the wants that dance across the media driven lives we lead waving at us, “Surely, you want me!” and helps us to realize that we need very little to be happy.  Once stripped away from the barrage of ‘buy me’ messages, the sheer pleasure of living each day fully simply unfolds with very little needed in the way of worldly possessions.

I saw this list in a Camino Facebook Group that they noted had been published from a blog called “The Greenery”.  If you’ve walked the Camino, you will surely smile.  If you haven’t yet, make sure to bookmark this list and read it when you return.

45 Ways to Identify a Post-Camino Peregrino in Withdrawal

1. Goodwill will not accept your used hiking boots.
2. You carry toilet paper, extra-powered Ibuprofen, and Compeed with you at all times.
3. You wash your socks, and underwear with shampoo.
4. You have a fantastic tan…but only on your left side.
5. You have seen Pablito‘s special rock.
6. You fear cyclists.
7. You can say “hello” in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, English, Dutch, Korean, Japanese.
8. You have either gotten or contemplated getting a scallop-shell tattoo.
9. Starbucks or Peet’s just doesn’t cut it anymore.
10. You can pee anywhere, and you don’t really care who sees.
11. You can pack everything you need for a 6 week trip in 10 minutes or less.
12. Your most prized possessions are field-tested socks and underwear.
13. The yellow arrow is your GPS.
14. Whenever you go to a restaurant, you look for the Menu de Peregrino, and you can’t understand why the wine isn’t included.
15. You can take a shower in 4 minutes…using only shampoo.
16. You can dry yourself off completely using a tiny ShamWow towel.
17. You’ve whittled your wardrobe down to 2 of everything.
18. You know how to say “medicated wipes,” “blister,” and “hemorrhoid” in Spanish.
19. You know and understand the many varieties of jamón.
20. You measure distances in K.
21. You only own clothing that dries really fast.
22. You walk into bars and ask for a stamp.
23. You’re not in a hurry.
24. You know to avoid the ensaladilla rusa.
25. You wash your dishes with shampoo.
26. You do not bother to ask for tomato, mayonnaise, or lettuce on your sandwich.
27. You don’t care much about “things,” but if anything happened to your framed compostela, you’d freak out.
28. You’ve had the best conversations of your life with people who walked beside you for a single hour.
29. You love pulpo, but only a la gallega.
30. You feel like a winner when you find a free electrical outlet at bedtime.
31. After telling yourself you will never eat another tortilla española as long as you live, now it’s all you want…as long as it isrecién hecho.
32. When you check into a hotel, you ask if there is “weefee” (WIFI).
33. You do not underestimate elderly Aussies, ever.
34. You want to hug John Brierley. You want to punch John Brierley.
35. The love you feel for your hiking boots is not natural.
36. You got a hug from The David. And then another one.
37. You are astonished when restaurants open for dinner at 5pm.
38. You know the difference between tapas and pintxos.
39. When you rinse out your Pilgrim wear, the water turns black.
40. When you sit down to lunch, you immediately take off your shoes.
41. You keep turning up the “C” knob in your home shower, but the water does not seem to be getting any more caliente.
42. You can really hold your vino tinto.
43. You wave your hands around in dark bathrooms and wait for the lights to come on.
44. You’ve been to the “end of the world.”
45. You know that anywhere is within walking distance, as long as you have the time.

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