Happy Holidays, dearest readers. The T-Boy Society of Film & Music’s final poll for 2020 is dedicated to PILGRIMAGES: Sacred Destinations. We felt this would be an appropriate theme as we slide into the holiday season. Though 2020 is a year we’d like to have in our rearview mirror, it’s been a great year for T-Boy because of you.
Ok, if my big brother, travel editor Ed Boitano, can do, then so can I. Though, I must confess this pilgrimage piece is also inspired by John Lennon. His passage in In My Life goes something like this...
Padre Pro’s last request was to be allowed to kneel and pray. When the firing squad’s shots failed to kill him, a soldier shot him at point-blank range. Pro had been falsely accused in the bombing attempt of former Mexican President Álvaro Obregón, and had become a wanted man. Betrayed to the authorities, he was sentenced to death without the benefit of any legal process.
“Savoring the Camino de Santiago: It’s the Pilgrimage, Not the Hike” by Julie Gianelloni Connor, is the latest of the many books about the Spanish pilgrimage popularized for the American audience by the Martin Sheen movie “The Way.”
This is the third installment of Ed Boitano’s series on Pilgrimages. In the second installment, Places I’ll Remember, Part 2, Boitano covered Vincent van Gogh’s final days in Auvers-sur-Oise, the Leaning Bell Tower of Pisa and Princess Grace in Monaco. Still quarantined at home in Southern California, Boitano is doing even more reminiscing these days.
This is the second installment of Ed Boitano’s series on Pilgrimages. In the inaugural installment, Pilgrimages: Places I’ll Remember, Boitano covered Dylan Thomas – Laugharne, Wales, Antoni Gaudí – Barcelona, Catalonia, Frida Kahlo & Leon Trotsky – Coyoacán, Mexico and The Barbary Apes – Gibraltar. Now quarantined at home due to the coronavirus, Boitano is doing a lot of remembering these days.
A pilgrimage is defined by Oxford Dictionary as (1) A journey to a holy place for religious reasons, or (2) Journey to a place that is connected with someone or something that you admire or respect.