Wodans-day

"Pappy, what day is it today?"
"Today is Wednesday."
"Pappy, what does Wensdey mean?"

I love these questions.  I hear most parents speak of dreading the really interesting questions, the really inquisitive ones, the "why is the sky blue", or "where do babies come from" questions that few adults give the proper amount of headspace anymore.  These questions are pure, mysterious and complex and most of the time we avoid thinking about them because they're just to damn difficult (read: fun) to answer.  Sure we "know" where babies come from, but do we?  It's like asking "How does life exist?", we know the physiology of it but that's not what your kid wants to know, you see.  Children have an innate ability to look for the absolute truth in all things. They want to get to the bottom of everything, they want the hard answers even if they don't possess the foundational knowledge to understand them.  The hard answers provoke curiosity and feed the desire to find out more.

Today my 3-year-old son asked me the above question about Wednesday and I couldn't have been more happy.  I explained to him first, about Norwegian mythology, that their god's name is Odin, Wotan, or Wodan and how the Norwegians gave him a day; Wodan's-day, which we now call Wednesday.  This is overly simplified of course, but enough to blow his little mind.  Now, the point is not that he remembers all the details I told him, or even any of them.  The point is that he retains a sense that there are deep answers to any question he may ask, not just simply "because that's the way it is" which is a stab-in-the neck to any burgeoning creative thinker.

It's funny amazing how a toddler can wrench an adult out of his or her daily thinking patterns and place them on a much more open and creative track.  After explaining the Wednesday thing I got to thinking about the whole ritual of our weekly days and the role that ritual still plays in our lives as humans of the future.

Isn't it true that we, now, are more immersed in daily ritual than ever before?  Sure, I think most people would agree to that.  But would they also agree that our current rituals are of a negative charge, leading us blindly onto the back of a meat-truck? I don't know.  Start thinking about the role ritual played in creating mankind's culture, society and communities.  Think about the fact that ritual used to be a thing which brought people together, allowed them to interact, share, and develop a culture whilst promoting longevity, learning and togetherness.  Our days of the week are named after events which were times of celebration, of communal sharing of the hunt, harvest, sacrament or feast.  Ritual was a grand thing and it was sacred, saved for the times when bonding was most needed, for survival.

Today our lives are overrun with ritualistic behaviour and we don't pay any attention to it.  What's worse, our modern rituals don't serve to bing people together, not in any meaningful sense.  Our rituals are creating and cementing a culture of individualism and rift.  How many societies do you think could survive on a diet of isolation and fear?  I suppose we'll find out soon enough.

Let's take the example of the Tim Horton's or Starbucks morning ritual that seems to be so popular with folks these days.  It's pure ritualistic behaviour because firstly, it makes no sense from a logistical standpoint.  Anyone could make coffee just as well or better from their homes and for much less money.  So then it must be the need for ritualized social interaction right?  well this is odd to because people don't interact in any positive way in the coffee line-up.  Is that snake-like caravan of vehicles in the Timmie's drive-through a positive morning experience?  Face it, you'd be much happier if you walked in to your caffeine-fix-joint of choice and found you where the only one in line.  Wouldn't you?  So if the social part of the ritual is forced, unwanted, then what does that mean?

I'm trailing-off a bit here, so I'll leave with a final thought.
We need to be aware of all the things we do in a day.  We have to take our consciousness back and refuse to   be individualized to the point of impotence.  Take the recent revolutions in Egypt and Yemen, or the consistent million-plus demonstrations in South America, could we stand together like that here?  In out current state of social separation and distrust of our peers?  I think not.  Do our rituals hold us together or do they serve to inflate the value our own, individual lives?  If we continue to value the one over the whole we can be manipulated into oblivion because each one of us believes we are too important to die for our culture, our society, our future.  It is certain that we will die.  The future of our children however, is what hangs in the balance.