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Hey all... I was looking at the LI website and came across this... it is very important that we all read it.

SECRET THOUGHTS OF A RITUAL
by Edward M. King
The following monologue was prepared as a general statement on the purpose of
ritualism. While it refers to nothing specifically drawn from any particular ritual, it
takes on the personality of a fraternity ritual to express some very valid points about
why such things exist and how members might benefit from them. As you begin to
read, imagine an apparition has leaped at your from a dusty volume containing your
own Ritual of Initiation!

There are many of us around. Some of us are very informal and loosely structured; others are very formal and
precisely worded. Whether you are aware of it or not, your whole life is based on certain ritualistic patterns.
The way you get up in the morning, the way you study, the way you organize your social life, the way you
speak and write, these are all based on certain habits or routines that you develop and are performed, by and
large, in an informal ritualistic way.
Today I would like to share with you some thoughts on another kind of ritual. One that is considered very
private and is often called esoteric. I am the fraternity ritual. One that you will find locked in a file in the corner
of some dark office. Because I don't get used or opened up very often, I have a lot of time to think, and I'd like
to share with you some of my thoughts.
Sometimes, I go through a real identity crisis. Who am I? What am I? Why am I? In order to know what a
thing is, you must first know what it is for. You tell what a thing is for by the way it is used.
Although there are some exceptions in the way I am used, let me tell you how the majority of fraternities use
me. The vast amount of my time is spent in a dark cabinet, locked up and gathering dust. About once a
semester there comes a mad rush for my existence, people literally scrambling, and all of a sudden I become
very important. It's really funny because many times they can't find me. They forget where I was placed and a
mild panic sets in until finally they dig me out from under the stacks of constitutions, by-laws, and chapter
minutes. Once I am found I am under 24-hour surveillance. It's almost as if I'm being digested, but that's not
really it; what's happening is that I'm being memorized. I'm literally studied word for word, phrase for phrase,
and sometimes people even argue over me, two or three people all wanting me at the same time. They begin
with "Well, let me just copy my part," then the argument gets hotter because somebody says, "No, it's not legal
to copy anything out of the ritual." Some people, however, go ahead and fudge a bit and copy their part and
then pass me on.
After being up almost all day and all night for a week, I am taken to a dimly lighted room where a number of
people are gathered. There I am presented with much feeling and serious drama. It is obviously a moment of
great climax for some of the people, for they are seeing and hearing me for the very first time. Shortly after the
ceremony I am brought back to the dark room and placed in the locked file drawer and I am not seen or heard
of until the end of the next semester. In this case, as a ritual, what am I? Well, as I see it, I am a perfunctory
service that must be performed in order to get new members into an organization. Once the initiation is over,
I'm pretty much pigeonholed until the next class is to be initiated.
In some fraternity houses, however, I exist in quite a different fashion. Shortly after the initiation the brothers
come in one by one, get me out of the drawer, and look me over very carefully. Some just like to read me,
others try to memorize me. Whatever the case, I like it when they use me. Sometimes they even argue over me,
and this gets exciting because you see that's what I'm about. I'm meant to be read carefully, discussed, and even
argued about. Yes, in fact, I can even be changed. I'm really a very human document, one that was written
down some time ago after a great deal of thought by one or two men, and I have been reworded, rephrased and
reevaluated many, many times.
In order to know what I'm really about, I need to be perpetually used and studied. Too often the members
mention me only at initiation time and I'm really meant for much more than that. In fact, one of my most
important missions is to help the active chapter at its weekly meetings. If I am understood and used properly at
these weekly meetings, I can really help the chapter get things together. There are always a few guys who don't
like to use me and put up a big argument about having and informal chapter meeting. What a joke that usually
turns out to be, most informal chapter meetings last a heck of a lot longer than formal chapter meetings where
I'm used. As I've listened to people and watched how they use me, a couple of important thoughts have crossed
my mind.
First, the fraternities have done an excellent job in keeping me an esoteric document; that is, basically a secret
document and therein is much of the problem. Not only am I a secret document to the outside, I am a secret to
most of the members as well. They really don't know or understand me because they've never really studied me.
Some people, I suspect, would like to keep me very, very secret because if non-members found out what I stood
for they might expect he members to live by it and that would be very difficult. Therefore, they keep me secret
and they won't have to change their lifestyle.
Although I can be used in different ways and for different things, when you boil me down to my fundamental
essence, I'm basically one thing; a system of values. I don't change very much because I am the product of
history and the spirit of man and how he relates to his fellow man and to his God. This relationship between
man and man, and man and God, has never been a static one. It is confusing and illuminating, painful and
exciting, a separation and a reunion; and although I appear to be a contradiction, I am really no more of a
contradiction than man himself. Too frequently we forget that man is both animal and spiritual in nature and
to reconcile the two can often be painful, confusing, and frightening. That is why it is so critical that man
understands who I am and what I am for.
Because I am a system of values I am therefore an instrument of self-evaluation. My values are clear and
absolute and yet difficult to emulate. To state a few, I am honor, courage, integrity, fidelity and courtesy, and I
demand self control as well as ambition and humility.
Those of you who are leaders in the fraternity movement, the officers at the national, international and local
levels and you who are professional fraternity men, must continue to ask yourselves how you can improve in
articulating to your members the message of your fraternity. Why is it that some of the members "get it" and
some do not? To some the message goes deep and becomes a part of their very being, while for others it never
scratches the surface. Ask yourself the question when you attend your regional meetings, your workshops,
retreats, leadership schools: how much time do you spend discussing and sharing with each other what personal
effect I have had on your lives? Do you, as so many active chapters do, use me to start the meetings and close
the meetings and become so involved in your day-to-day business that you forget that I am there to be reflected
upon? For those of you who do understand and use me, are you afraid or ashamed to share those experiences
and thoughts with your fellow brothers?
Those of you who are fraternity leaders and are not using me this way are very derelict in your responsibilities,
your duties, and the very oath that you took when you became a member and an officer in your fraternity. For
you see, as written in your esoteric manuals, I am really of very little value unless you and the other brothers
come and, through your mutual sharing, begin to experience the essence and depth of my message. Then you
and I are activated by the real charge into your spiritual and moral fiber that is possible for all men but achieved
by too few. The effectiveness of my message is in direct proportion to your knowledge and belief in my values.
If there is something about me that you do not like, then change me; but for God's sake, do not ignore me. It is
the indifference to and ignorance of my essential message that continues to stifle the growth of the fraternity
system. Never has the time been so ripe as this period in our history when the young people of today on our
college campuses are crying out for the kind of message, guidance, value and leadership that has been so long
hidden in my pages.
If you would just realize that by better knowing and understanding me, many of your day-to-day problems
housing, drugs, collections and apathy would simply fade away and not exist.
To threaten or fine a brother is an anathema to my very being. If a brother slips and becomes derelict he should
be asked to review his oath and charge, and if he chooses not to obey and follow that oath, then he should be
asked to leave the brotherhood. If you would weed out those who do not wish to follow or believe in the
obligation they swore to uphold, we would all be much better off. Too frequently, I see you caught up with the
numbers in our brotherhood rather than the quality of our brotherhood.
Basically, I am a road map to help a person along his journey of life and assist him in his communion with his
fellow travelers. Who am I? Your ritual. What am I? A system of values. What am I for? My purpose is not to
make you a better fraternity man, but rather a better human being.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Edward M. King is the Director of Housing and Residential
Life at Bradley University, Bradley, Illinois. He is a member of the Sigma Chi
Fraternity and has been inducted into their Order of Constantine.!
!