Quote:
Originally Posted by bejazd
Whoa, Wolfman, You've had your Wheaties today!
Even though young people seem to be more narcissitic in some ways, there is still a tremendous yearning for friendships that are real and lasting, and opportunities to experience a kind of fellowship and family love that many people never do find. Greeks have that to offer! Can we tap into the best part of what we are and sell it?
Odd that we put so much focus on the exclusivity aspect of Greek membership as collegians. After you've been an alum for about one year, most people come to realize that anybody could be your sister/brother. And when you realize that anybody could be...you know that everybody is. What a blessing that realization has been to me in my adult life as I've navigated the workplace, becoming a member of my husband's family, creating relationships with my children's friends and their parents...and involvement in many organizations and activities in my community. Because of my GPB membership experience, I know how to relate to so many people who are so different than me!
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I agree with you wholeheartedly.The irony is that the ability to open oneself up to to what you speak of is often directly related to the integral, intentional transformation of human personality through soclialization into real human functioning in community,where one experiences just what you speak of. This often happens through the transformative rituals in society which are meant to do this for the sake of the group. In contrast, much of the socialization in our society is consumeristic and not amenable to this.
Not to sound too pedantic, my experience of pledging opened me up to understand foundational truths about our links with all humankind, but this most often happens through the particularity of a group where one discovers who one is (as a social being) through real relationships, from which one can then generalize to the whole of humanity. (One of my former professors would lecture about this under the term "catholic personality," borrowed from theologian/bishop John Zizoulas.)