Blog 3: Ritual

What makes the Greek community different than other organizations on campus? What makes any one chapter different than another and different than being in a class honorary or a service club?

If you posed this question to 99% of people involved with Greek life here at Ohio State or on another college campus, I’m willing to bet you a lot of money that the person will talk about their ritual. And they are correct. We like to say that the ritual sets us apart from every other organization on campus. What does that really mean though?

I believe that the ritual is great, not only because it highlights those values of Friendship, Knowledge, Service, Morality, and Excellence, but also because it serves as a roadmap and a guide to acting out those values. It provides us with a stick to measure ourselves against. At any time in the week, I can take the time to reflect on our ritual and those values. I ask myself how I’ve succeeded in living my ritual and how I’ve failed. Then I can take those reflections and work harder the next week to become a better person. As our readings last week hinted, the ritual is a guide to being a good human being, and the beauty of greek life is that we’re given these lofty ideals to strive for. In essence, living the ritual is a goal in and of itself. It is an all-encompassing goal at that. If we’re successfully living our ritual, we’re being better friends, gaining knowledge, serving others, practicing good morals, and achieving excellence. In short, our ritual captures those things that make life great.

In this respect, I feel that the ritual is special because not only does it bond us together as Fijis, but its message and its essence bonds us together with all of humanity. It is a critical element of our brotherhood just as much as it is a critical element of our relationship with the world at large. If we strive each day to live our ritual we become better brothers and better citizens of our world. We’ll be successful in anything we do, and we’ll gain great satisfaction doing it because we’ve lived our lives according to those critical values.

One more thought on ritual. I googled ritual in google images hoping to find a good image to post with this blog. The more I looked, I noticed two trends.

1)      The most hits were images of ancient-looking objects or of tribal peoples

2)      If a band has an album with the name ritual in it, it most likely has a naked woman on the cover

So I asked, “Why is the word ritual associated mostly with the ancient and exotic tribal dances?”

I let that thought marinate for a while, and I came to a realization about ritual. Rituals are incredible tools, not only because they are a bond of unity between members of a group, but also because they serve as special ways of reminding us about their messages. Our ritual is special because it serves as a reminder to the foundational values our fraternity is built on, as well as a bond of unity between us.