Quote:
Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby
My main point, however, is that we should celebrate the values of our orgs (and perhaps the common values across orgs) above celebrating a specific block of text or handshake or sequinned leggings or anything else. I'm just not feeling National Ritual Week.
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For many of us, there are no distinctions between celebrating the values of our organizations and celebrating our rituals. Ritual is more,
much more than a grip or sign, or even sequined leggings. It is the vessel that holds the values we cherish and enables us to pass them along to the next generation. Sure, secret handshakes and symbols are fun, but if we stop at the fun and fail to see what they really mean, what they remind us of and point us to, we're missing the point. And if we think of our rituals as "a specific block of text," then I fear we're not internalizing the message those words contain at all.
This seems like a good time to post this:
"The Secret Thoughts of a Ritual" -- Edward M. King (Sigma Chi). I really think this is worth reading frequently.
I am so very grateful for the ritual I share with my brothers and the bond it creates among us. I am so very grateful for those who wrote it -- for the care and devotion they put into crafting not just a meaningful and beautiful document but a deeply meaningful and beautiful experience. I am so very grateful for those in our history who have worked to help us understand and appreciate the gift we have in our ritual. I am so very grateful for the guide the ritual has been for me and continues to be for me as I strive to live by the values it champions. And I am glad to know that those in other fraternities and sororities have similiar reasons to be equally grateful for their own rituals.
It is with this gratitude that I will mark National Ritual Celebration Week.