Sitting 111km from Santiago de Compostela, Sarria is the most popular starting point on the Camino route, as it represents the minimum distance one must walk to be recognized as completing a pilgrimage upon arrival at the Cathedral office. Where the Camino was a quiet and introspective journey through the mountains to start, it was a stirring mass of people, buses, packs and poles as I approached the main road in Sarria from the train station.
I quickly found my bunkhouse for the night, claimed my bed, and ventured into town for a look at the local church, and some traditional Galicia food. The charming chapel of San Lazaro immediately across the street caught my eye instead, and I walked into a busy scene just outside the main door. I weaved my way through the crowd and into the main building, where directly ahead, a baptism was taking place. An elderly woman in the back motioned for me to sit next to her, and I quickly took a seat, not wanting to cause a disruption. She was praying a rosary and tended quietly to her progression of prayers as I scanned the room. It was the oddest combination of people inside the church, which remained open for general business, even as the baptism was taking place. There were tourists/pilgrims snapping photos on one side, well dressed family members on the other, a priest presiding over the ceremony at the front of the church, and a woman wielding a very loud straw broom, sweeping in the main doorway. The voices from the crowd in the plaza carried into the church, doors wide open on a crisp afternoon, punctuated by the smell of fresh hydrangeas and jasmine. Nobody else seemed to think anything of it, so I sat for about 15 minutes and cooled my heels. I snapped a few photos as the crowd began to disperse, and gently placed my hand on my new friend's shoulder to let her know I'd be going. She nodded and continued her prayers undisturbed.
The scene at the chapel was somewhat emblematic of Sarria as a whole. Relatively small in size, it's teeming with people from all over the world who have chosen to start their Camino here, or who have just enough time away from work to make it to Santiago in reasonable stretches. It's a busy place.
I ducked into the local taverna for an evening meal, and I stood behind a gentleman who was getting by in broken Spanish but was clearly struggling to communicate. He ordered a beer and a salad, and then sat down by himself at a table for four. I was sitting alone just across from him at a table for 2, so I introduced myself in Spanish and asked him if he was starting up the Camino tomorrow. He responded in English, and I grabbed my beer and joined him at his table, at his invitation. He was from Shabazi (I think), in between Tel Aviv and Jaffa in Israel. He was biking the Camino, and he found himself lamenting that he didn't get to really talk to anyone along the way since he was generally moving so much faster than everyone else. We talked about our motivations for walking, expectations, and professional work, when he very unassumingly shared a beautiful fact about his family and a product we've probably seen before in our local gyms and grocery stores.
He was excited to find that I was from Austin, as some of his wife's family lives in San Antonio, Texas. He mentioned trips to San Antonio, and he offered that his wife had a cousin that also lived in New York and had done rather well for himself in the United States with a gluten-free snack company. I inquired after his wife's cousin, and he shared that he had started a company, but offered few other details, besides a name. He eventually came back around to this detail when we started talking about our experiences on the trail and the spirit of the Camino, and it soon emerged that his wife's cousin, Daniel Lubetzky, was the founder of the KIND company, which produces a variety of healthy snack bars.
I've seen them before, but I don't know that I've ever had more than one. There wasn't anything necessarily extraordinary about the product, but it did have an extraordinary story that is worth sharing for those who may be unfamiliar with it.
Daniel Lubetzky is a Mexican-Jewish entrepreneur who graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He is the son of a holocaust survivor, and he is responsible for establishing a series of joint ventures between Arabs and Israelis in Israel, to promote peace and dialog in the region. He founded PeaceWorks, Inc., and was recognized by President Obama as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship. His disdain for unhealthy snack choices in the American diet led him to create a company that would focus on providing heathy snacks that promote wellness and help combat obesity and diabetes in the process. The name for this snack brand, however, was inspired by his father.
While imprisoned in the Dachau Nazi concentration camp as a child during World War II, Daniel's father faced certain death for lack of food and adequate nutrition. Each day, out of the sight of others, a Nazi guard would sneak him a rotten potato to help keep him alive, in an extraordinary and paradoxical act of kindness from beyond enemy lines - an act which would have cost the guard his life had he been caught. He was rescued when allied troops arrived, and he attributed his survival to kindness - as he himself characterized it - even from the enemy. KIND bars were born, and the corporation donates $10,000 every month to popular causes selected by the general public.
Kindness. A simple act of kindness where there wasn't supposed to be one, saved a life. Kindness it seems, is more than just not doing things to upset others. It's going out of your way to recognize the value of another, and paying forward the good and positive spirit we so badly need in our world today. It's sitting down and sharing a meal with a total stranger and discovering something extraordinary about their journey and orbit.
We finished our meal, and it turned out we were both staying in the same bunkhouse. We chatted for a few more minutes, and then went our separate ways for the evening. The tone for the final stretch, however, was perfectly set.
Kindness in all things, will see you through.
Will