Communication

 

I left Saint-Chely d'Aubrac this morning and took this photo as I left.  The village of the dead opposite the village of the living.  I wonder if it makes it easier to think of dying as just moving from one side of the valley to the other.   There is also a river in between the two "villages" to clearly show the transition (no 3 headed dog though).  

More forests, more hills, more rivers, more cows yada, yada, yada.  I can see you're getting bored with all these

descriptions so I thought I would talk about communication.

Until this evening (where I had a proper conversation with my hosts, more on this tomorrow) the talk has been very one sided.  All I need to do is ask a simple question like how long have you been here or where are you from and off they go giving me their life story.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I'm just surprised because a lot of people come through these gites during the season, which means a lot of repetition.  Maybe other pilgrims tend to talk a lot and as   

I'm a good listener they are relieved to finally be able to get their 2 cents in.  I wonder why it is that many people prefer to talk rather than listen?  Isn't it by listening that you learn new things and expand your mind.  By definition you already know everything you say.  I'm pretty sure that my capacity to sit quietly a the end of the table when I was a child, ensured that I got to stay up and listen to my parents and their student friends remaking the world (this was around 1968).  It certainly played a role in making me who I am today (for

better or worse).

This was another long stage around 28km with quite a few ascents and descents.  I have now left Aubrac and will be walking through the Lot for the rest of my trip.  As I was leaving Espalion, I came across an old lady sitting on a bench with her dog. We exchanged greetings (as one does on the chemin) and as I was pulling away she said "I bet I can guess where you are going".  I stopped and looked at her expectantly.  She said " You are going.... er you are going ..... er you are going..."  I was still standing there patiently (I told you I'm good listener, even when there is nothing to listen to).  Finally after more stuttering she said "Espalion!".  I pointed out to her that I was walking away from Espalion when she greeted me so that seemed an unlikely destination.  "OK then Estaing" says she.  This would have been a better guess if it had been the morning rather than the middle of the afternoon.  Without waiting for a further guess I told her my destination and left.  In spite of having scored 0 for 2 she seemed quite happy with our little exchange.   

I'm surprised nobody got my Casablanca reference for yesterday's blog.  1 point if you can tell me what was the reference in the text.  

Of course Felicity will get her 5 points when she tells everybody else where I am.