Cross Necklace: Israel
In 2000 something M graduated from seminary and became ordained. As a present, his father gave us a trip to Israel.
It wasn't exactly a pilgrimage, more of a touristy trip through the historical sites of Judaism and Christianity, the two religions that have been so important to M.
Most of my previous travel had been backpacking, skipping from hostel to hostel and making it all on my own. On this trip we got into a giant tourist bus with a bunch of old white people and got led around by a guide. In many ways I'm glad we did the trip this way, it seems like every hill and valley in Israel is full of history, and if I had been there by myself I never would have been able to begin to appreciate it. Also, it turns out to be much more difficult to get around in places where you can't even start to read the language because the alphabet is not the same.
The history of Israel is laid on so thick and deep. It seems that every place not only has one claim to fame, but often two or three or four, all to different groups, some of them fighting, some of them living together in harmony. We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, at least I believe that's the church I'm thinking of, and it was fascinating, because it is shared between a number of different Christian sects that have divvied it up over thousands of years. So it's all one big church building, but each nook and cranny is the providence of different Christian offshoots: Copts here, Eastern Orthodox there. I don't know who decided how to divide up the real estate (or who cleans the bathrooms), but it seems like there's a fascinating mystery story in here somewhere. I imagine our hero having to navigate dozens of religious jurisdictions just to find the evidence.
As we were standing on the roof of the church getting our tourist orientation, the Christian church bells and the Muslim call to prayer started at the same time. And we just had to stop and listen. Because that's Israel.