We’ve come to that time of the academic year when chapters begin preparing in earnest to initiate fall new members. If your university is on the semester system, perhaps you are nearing the end of your 8-week new member process; if you’re on the quarter system Initiation may still be a few weeks away. It’s always been my contention that the Ritual is not simply a ceremony that we dust off 2-3 times a year, but rather something that, if internalized, truly becomes a tool to help us navigate The Road.
So why the # sign (hashtag, in the Twitter vernacular) in the subject of this post? The value of the hashtag on Twitter is that it keeps a conversation going, or simply tags a comment along a continuing theme. #livingtheritual can be used as a way to point out when students or staff exemplify their chapter’s values and Ritual. Sometimes, it is used to identify a situation that runs counter to those values. It’s a small way to hold ourselves and each other accountable to the things we all swore an oath to live up to.
#livingtheritual isn’t always easy. I suppose if it was easy, every organization would have a Ritual. But our letters, for better or worse, set us apart from other organizations and hold us to a higher standard.
The challenge (and reward) of #livingtheritual lies in a recent comparison I heard from a UIFI graduate: Ritual is not a wedding, it’s a marriage. Simply put, the real work of the Ritual begins after the ceremonial initiation of each new member. Once the symbols are revealed, badges are bestowed, and mysteries are explained, the hope is that we walk out of the hall with a renewed sense of what it means to live as a man of honor. In marriage, the work begins after the reception is over, when the gifts are opened and thank you notes sent.
Serendipitously, I’ve been fortunate to be a Delt as long as I’ve been a husband, with just over two months separating those two important ceremonies. I try to live as a good husband every day. Some days are better than others, like when I volunteer to cook dinner when my wife gets home from work late. Some days are worse, when I have unfair expectations of my wife’s ability to read my mind and know why I am upset or frustrated.
Similarly, there are days when it is easier to live up to my Delt oath, and days when I rely on my brothers to assist me. But just as marriage includes the good days and bad ones, so too, does our Ritual. If your brothers hashtagged your actions with #livingtheritual, would it be because more often than not, you exemplified our values, or because you failed to do so?
Just because many of the elements of our Ritual our secret, doesn’t mean that that how we live out those values should be a secret.
Congratulations to all the new brothers who start their own journey down The Road, I look forward to seeing how you all #livetheritual.
Jeff Pelletier is a 1994 graduate of Boston College, and a 2006 Initiate of the Beta Phi chapter at Ohio State University, where he currently serves as the chapter advisor. He works for the university on the staff of the Ohio Union, managing budgets and operations for the student organization community. You can follow him on Twitter @JeffBC94
Great article, I enjoyed the twitter hashtag analogy and it really puts the main point of your article in perspective. It /is/ extremely important to remember that being initiated and seeing Ritual for the first time is not the culmination of our Delt experience but rather the beginning. We are reminded of all Delts that have witnessed Ritual before us and are pushed to live up to the example that they have set - big shoes to fill.
Posted by: Nickaknudson | November 03, 2010 at 03:46 PM