The Silliest Ritual

When I purchase some ice cream I want the little plastic spoon to be white, not colored. I don’t like colored spoons.

There is a useless and hideous fluffy piglet dangling in my car, but I want nobody to remove it. It’s my useless piglet.

One of my smartest friends saves all coins from her purse, so she can surprise herself later with a self-paid bonus.

Many of the things we do make no practical sense.

Some teams like passing around a stress ball during meetings. Some companies have an annual celebration away from their offices. Several years ago I regularly invited colleagues to my house to cook dinner for me. And another silly thing I’ve witnessed is an entire department dressing in pink on what the guys called “Pink Thursday”.

Most of these rituals make no sense. But we perform them because we enjoy them. Removing the waste would remove the pleasure we derive from going through the motions.

One of the silliest rituals in the world involves people sending each other best wishes, families and friends getting together, eating lots of food, giving each other little presents, and pretending that it’s all arranged by a fat elderly guy in an unfashionably red jogging suit. We call it Christmas.

It serves no practical purpose, really.

Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy performing these rituals, and going through the motions, as much as I do.

Happy holidays!