Humans are a special gift here on earth

I survived the Camino de Santiago last month and am honored to resume my small part of the opinion page in our local newspaper today.

While I was away, water appeared to still be flowing to our farms and rural communities, so that's good news. The bad news is that the Department of Public Works and Director Justin Jenson lost its MVP Nichole Bethurem. Wednesday was her last day as administrative assistant, where she performed her final official duties at the Corning Subbasin Advisory Committee meeting.

Nichole served with the Tehama County Public Works Department for 18 years and will be sorely missed. On Monday she will take on her new role in the election department. I mentioned to her yesterday that she would probably be dealing with less political drama in the elections department than she has over the years as clerk for the groundwater and flood control meetings.

When I took over leadership of the Tehama County Farm Bureau and Cattlemen's Groundwater Committee earlier this year, she was always a welcome, friendly face in a room full of people who don't necessarily like agriculture's role in Tehama County's ground and surface water allocations .

Not only does Nichole know technology and common decency, she is also a dog lover and was nominated as a 2023 Hometown Hero by the RB Daily News. Nichole has fostered 62 dogs as of 2023 and can be seen in local parades with her organization, Buster's Paw Prints. I saw her with dozens of four-legged friends at the Los Molinos Fourth of July parade this summer and it's obvious she loves her furry friends.

Not only is Nichole a dog lover, but she also has a soft spot for seniors. Her organization helps fund spaying and neutering of dogs for low-income residents in Tehama County. I will miss Nichole's competence and integrity and wish her all the best in the elections department. The one thing I won't miss about Nichole is trying to spell her last name 15 times without going to the county website.

Good luck, Justin. You have big shoes to fill.

Good Camino

Now that my toenail is on the mend and only a large blister scar remains from my exertions on the 114 kilometer journey from Tui in Spain to Santiago de Compostela, I would like to share a little about my journey with the fine readers of this Newspaper.

Before I left on September 5, several readers from Chico and Red Bluff reached out to share their journey on the Camino, a path that forever connects pilgrims. Now I understand why I received such warm wishes for my trip.

At first I imagined a hike with four friends on the Way of St. James, a pilgrimage that he is said to have undertaken as a disciple of Jesus to spread the message. The hike was about much more than putting one foot in front of the other for 15 to 20 miles every day. The hike was a pilgrimage for my soul and to connect deeply with others from around the world.

After an elevation gain of 600 meters at the end of our third day of hiking, we arrived at our hotel exhausted, hungry and quite proud of ourselves. At the table next to us in the bar (restaurants are closed from 4 to 8 p.m.) was an engineer from Louisiana and his wife, a retired teacher.

A few days later we met her again on the way when he had pain in his left calf. A vein from that leg was used to repair his heart. My roommate on the trip and dear friend is an amazing nurse in Enloe. She wrapped his calf and gave him several aspirins, but not before a surgeon from Lucerne, Switzerland, stopped and offered him some pain relief cream.

Two hours and a few cappuccinos later, we are now part of an eternal Camino family. I have a new place to visit in Switzerland, Louisiana, and they have a place in Corning.

September 11th is a painful day in our country's history, so we stopped at the Pilgrim Chapel in Pontavedra to pay our respects and light a candle in memory of those who lost their lives that day. We met some wonderful Israeli citizens who also remembered this day in our country. We acknowledged their pain and suffering and wished them well. These lucky people cycled the Camino.

About five miles into our hike on September 11th, I met a man and his wife. Both were fellow journalists who attended J-School in the 1980s and remembered what the business was like before reporters were branded “liberal” or “conservative.”

Then we talked about 9/11 and where we were that morning. I was getting my oldest ready for kindergarten when Matt Lauer gasped on the Today Show.

My journalist colleague was sitting in his office at the Pentagon when an alarm sounded. He assumed it had something to do with the planes in the Twin Towers, but as he evacuated the building, the smoke and fire from the plane crashing into the Pentagon burned the hair on his arms.

There was much more to his Pentagon story and the hundreds of others I met on this once-in-a-lifetime trek to nourish my aging body and soul.

I've been home for two weeks, living in a walnut dryer. But every day I think about my wonderful journey and remember how incredibly kind and compassionate we are as a human race.

Don't let politics or television or the ridiculous actions of some lawless minors and adults in this community convince you otherwise.

Humans are an incredibly wonderful gift here on earth.