Salvaging the Camino
Not even falling snow could deter people from showing up for Amy Lin’s talk on this month’s theme: CAMINO. Live Latin beats filled the room as attendees grabbed coffee from CrashMurderBusiness and baked goods from Chocolate Maven.
Behind the guitar sat Sonido Nómade, bringing the atmospheric sounds of his native Puerto Rico to our CreativeMornings home at CCA.
Before Amy took the mic, the audience considered the icebreaker question: What is your superpower, and how did your journey shape it?
Amy’s superpower is salvaging. She wastes nothing—not materials, not opportunities, not even a sprained ankle on the Camino de Santiago.
Emigrating from Taiwan to Hollywood with her mom at age three, Amy spent much of her childhood moving around. Their slightly nomadic lifestyle often left them light on furniture, so Amy started making her own. Out of cardboard.
That practice of giving old materials new life followed her into adulthood, and eventually into one of her defining projects: helping architect the Tesque Pueblo seed bank in Santa Fe, built almost entirely from salvaged and natural materials.
Then the Camino called.
Last year, Amy set out on the Camino del Norte with 30 days and 430 miles ahead of her. A self-described non-morning person, the first pre-dawn morning caught her by surprise: I had no idea mornings were this beautiful.
Midway through the journey, while snapping a photo, she sprained her ankle. Many would have stopped, but Amy kept going… very, very slowly. Why? She didn't quite know. After returning home, she reflected on some of the wisdom she collected along the way:
“The Camino provides what you need, not what you seek.”
“Walk slowly, don’t rush. The place you have to reach is yourself.” (Sage advice, if a little late.)
Amy had set out to walk the Camino, but instead, she salvaged it.
Salvaging what’s old and forgotten and seeing what it could become is her calling card. Today she’s building a startup by transforming what we flush into what she enthusiastically calls "brown gold." Amy reminds us, ”Sewage is waste, but compost is a resource. One can make us sick, and one can help us heal the planet.”
Caminante, no hay camino. Se hace camino al andar.
“Wanderer, there is no path. You make the path by walking.”
We had two door prize winners this month. Bob Vladem won a curved origami art piece made by Amy (from salvaged materials, of course), and Brooke Gilder won a gift certificate for Chatter Productions, one of our beloved sponsors.
Shout-out to we. grow. eco. for supplying our beautiful scalloped shell nametags made from discarded cotton.
Check out February’s Flickr Album.
Photos by Ivan Barnett, Kerry Kehoe and Kaela Waldstein.
Video by SpaceHelmetPictures.
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