Pilgrimage

My reflections, or perhaps peregrinations, are inspired by a former colleague's brief but very meaningful meditations during Eid ul-Adha. Some days, it seems as if the metaphor of journey is tiresome because every transition seems to be part of a journey — if the metaphor is seen everywhere, it becomes meaningless.

But the idea of pilgrimage is different; whereas some might argue that the journey is the whole point, with a pilgrimage, the destination is the point. In the English-speaking world, there is one particular piece of allegorical literature that is all about that — I refer, of course, to John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.

The story isn't quite one for every faith, and it is horribly ponderous in parts. Yet, as Bunyan's allegory unwinds, the journey and the eventual destination of Mr Christian become more and more familiar, like something frequently seen out of the corner of your eye.

I think that the part that grabs me most is the hymn somewhere in the middle of the journey. It is the only one Bunyan is known to have written, and I first knew it as He Who Would Valiant Be. The first verse goes:

He who would valiant be
  'gainst all disaster,
  let him in constancy
  follow the Master.
There's no discouragement
  shall make him once relent
  his first avowed intent
  to be a pilgrim.

It is a stirring piece, but more than that, it contains good advice for any pilgrim. For a pilgrim who doesn't quite reach his destination is only a wanderer, and perhaps that much less for it.