Week 4: 9/22-9/25

The Book of Wanderings

Before starting the book, I wanted to look up the difference between wandering and a pilgrimage. What I found was that wandering is traveling aimlessly for place to place, while a pilgrimage, is usually done for a religious meaning.

Initial Reaction:

I've enjoyed the fast pace and ease of reading. For me it kinda reads like a journal and I like that. How she changes between the story of her journey and Fabis journey kinda confuses me at time and make the story more choppy for me. I'm not a huge history person, so although I do think the history adds to the story, I really only care about Meyer's journey. This idea of following someone else path is really interesting to me. I feel like I connect to Meyers in her sense of feeling like she needed to get out an explore the world for herself. When I read that the book was a, "mother-daughter pilgrimage," I don't think it would be a book I would enjoy very much, but I've really liked it. I really appreciated how in depth she was with her background story because it made her seem very credible and honest with her readers.

Memories Passage:
On page 78, theres a passage about how Meyers is trying to recall memories and cant remember the details and she says, "But what does it mean that that life ow feels intangible to me, as lost as I'd never lived it? I can hardly remember the little faces..." This passage really made me reevaluate how I'm living my life. Memories are so important to me and this passage mad me think about how I might be living in the past too much. Life keeps going on and on and theres no way to stop it. Time is limited so I really need to appreciate every moment. Remembering this in hard times in especially important. Life will keep moving forward whether you want it to or not. You will make it through and just try to focus on the moment instead of how everything is bad because their will always be a new day tomorrow.

Religion:
This book is said to be a pilgrimage which is largely used for a religious travel. I find it interesting that Meyer would call her journey a pilgrimage because she is wrestling with her faith. This theme really related with me because growing up I didn't have a religion pushed onto me. I grew up with no religious beliefs and have been trying to figure it out on my own. I think I am very much like Meyer because I would classify myself as agnostic, but definitely attracted to christianity and catholicism. Something that will stick with me from this book is when Meyers is talking about her faith and she says, "'I am mainly just seeking.'" I really love this mindset. She worded it perfectly. Right now I definitely don't see myself committing to a style of faith, but I do have beliefs that I keep building for myself. I've never been a very religious person because I was raised in a household who didn't talk about religion, but now I just want to keep learning and 'seeking' my faith.