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Ha! HotDamn, I'm sure your dad IS cool. And it was a nice compliment. I just wasn't quite ready yet to remind a 20-something of her dad.
Speaking for myself, there's not really a thrill involved in getting a new ritual. Maybe the first few, way back when, but not now. It's certainly exciting to have new material to study, but I don't stand at the mailbox with wild eyes, wringing my hands and laughing maniacally because I now have the secrets of XYZ. It's more like the way sugar_and_spice described it. You don't care so much which group it's from, you're just poring through it looking for unique or interesting or historically significant details.
That's just me, personally. I avoid the term ritual "collector" because I think it incorrectly connotes an acquisition mindset. "Researcher" and "student" are more appropriate terms, in my case anyway.
Remember that the main reason our rituals today are so beautiful and detailed and inspirational is because the authors were very well schooled in many forms of ritual - from ancient greek and roman rituals, to crusade-era groups, to the class societies of renaissance and enlightenment-era Europe, to the masons, the early American literary and class societies, benevolent and insurance societies, up to and including their peers - the other GLOs on their campuses. They had a vast sea of information from which to draw the bits and pieces that spoke most clearly to their hearts.
Anyway, I fear the day is soon coming when all of our rituals will be open for examination. There has been and is still too much carelessness, too much malice against greeks, too much thirst for exposé among the general public, and too little value placed on honoring the vows GLO members make in their lives. It is best to start working your mindset around to that eventuality, and to start thinking how to evolve beyond it. Because it's coming.
wptw
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