Initiation: A Rite of Passage

Ritual is these days pretty much ignored or even despised, unless you’re a gangsta wannabe who has to shoot a school-aged child to get yourself into the inner circle. Ritual – the rite of initiation – used to be of great value to this country, at least to its male component. The rite of initiation used to humble us and make us human beings. I can’t claim to surviving Marine Corps boot camp training, as my father can. Nor did I attend the Air Force Academy, as my great kid brother did. But between initiation into Phi Delta Theta and a summer camp doing officer’s boot with the USAF, I learned the lesson. Trouble is, the lesson has to be beaten into you. One purpose of the rite of initiation is to grind you down and humiliate you beyond belief. In this age of artificially pumped up self-esteem, the “attaboy” for showing up for school once or twice a week even as you drool in a stoned stupor on your textbook, it’s outright archaic/ David Bond , Wallace Street Journal. More here .

Question: Did you ever endure an initiation ritual of any sort?