To make Comments write directly to Jim at jimt@quixotic.ca
23
Jan
2020
Flakes of winter snow sift down outside my window as I write these words. Millions of them. Billions of them. Burying the bird feeder. Burying my driveway.
I go out to shovel. Each snowflake weighs next to nothing. It’s amazing how much a shovelful of next-to-nothing can weigh.
No two of those snowflakes are identical, I’ve been told.
Maybe it’s true. Maybe it isn’t. The only way to prove it, either way, would be to examine every snowflake that has ever fallen.
But if you lived in Australia these days, who cares? When summer temperatures soar above 50 degrees Celsius, when fires create their own weather systems, a snowflake wouldn’t have, umm, a snowflake’s chance in hell of surviving long enough to be examined.
So many of the things that we humans argue about, divide ourselves about, even go to war about, are what a friend calls “head stuff.” Interesting, but irrelevant.
Categories: Soft Edges
Tags: Rituals, Chesterton
31
Oct
2018
Tonight is Halloween. Or Hallowe’en, if you’re a pedant about spelling. Or even All Hallows’ Eve, if you’re obsessive about religious history.
Traditionally, All Hallows’ Eve was the night preceding All Saints’ Day, the dark night when the ghosts of the dead – the “hallowed” ones – returned to earth. All Saints was a time to honour the dead; All Hallows Eve was, in a sense, their time to take revenge on us still-living souls by scaring the bejabbers out of us.
I don’t know anyone who still believes that the souls of the dead flit among us on Halloween night. But we still enjoy the dressing up, the parading door to door, the make-believe world of ghosties and goblins.
It’s a comforting kind of ritual, a dip into a warm bath of familiarity. These emotions cling, long after reason takes over.
Tags: Rituals, Habits
28
Mar
I write these words while Wheel of Fortune flickers on TV. I’m not paying attention, but I’m dimly aware of the rituals being acted out on the screen. Spinning the wheel. Applauding on cue. Groaning when someone goes “Bankrupt.” Standing on the right spot on the floor for the final challenge, when exactly the same letters will come up every time.
Meanwhile, Vanna White pretends to turn blank squares turn into letters -- even though everyone knows she’s only there as eye-candy.
The formula is so predictable, it could be hosted by a robot. Maybe it is.
And audiences love it.
Yet people claim to dislike rituals. Typically, they call them “meaningless.” Especially in the religious context.
Tags: Rituals, routines, systems