Hey there gorgeous reader! I’m back after a frazzled few months of milestone birthdays, long distance trips and busy business type stuff.
Last time we spoke, I was telling you about Princess Natasha and her 18th birthday celebrations. She is now a grown woman although to meet her you would dispute the fact.
Natasha Jade likes to assert her somewhat bizarro opinion about society on everyone. For example, she will suggest to shoe store owners they should have baby shoes in adult sizes (because why should babies get to wear all the cute stuff?) and she is a firm believe that people over the age of 18 should be allowed to ride on those $2 kids rides in malls. Fair enough too!
Natasha truly is an individual. Independent, warm, funny and unique and very much attuned to her own sense of self while remaining connected to her local and global communities. She’s pretty awesome.
So enough about my progeny. I wanted to chat a little about the importance of rites of passage in this day and age. I have noticed that there isn’t much to signify the end of one life cycle and the beginning of another except for birthdays and graduation ceremonies and the likes.
There is an African proverb that says: “If we do not initiate the youth, they will initiate themselves.” It’s true. Just look at the problems we have with gangs and bullying.
Aside from the bad stuff, I would hate to think that all our new adults get for their efforts is voting privileges, access to rated R movies, being able to drink alcohol and get into licensed venues. As things stand, they leave school with a piece of paper that tells future employees and educational institutes how well they did academically. But what about individual character, self-worth, life skills and other such skills that determine if they are ready, willing and able to go out into the world and function as well-adjusted adults?
Which brings me to sacred-type stuff. What happened to family and cultural handing down of stories and heirlooms? What about blessings by elders, songs, dances, costumes, processions and gifts to honor and celebrate this monumental occasion?
I’d like to see a rite of passage specifically designed for young people to affirm their strengths and individual worth. I’m not talking competitive sports and intelligence tests. I’m talking challenges of the mind and body – not against each other, but against themselves – such as a rite of passage specifically designed so that each youth may find out who they are so they know where they fit in society.
Like the Australian aborigines and their walkabouts where male Australian Aborigines would undergo a journey during adolescence and live in the wilderness for months on end. In many remote communities in Australia, Aboriginal boys still have the opportunity to undergo traditional rites of passage and initiation into manhood.
Of course there are many other cultures where rites of passage are still practised. But for us folk living in the modern world there is no kinship system, community structure, cultural exchange or initiation, let alone a means of deepening our connectedness to land and spirit.
Without getting socially and politically extreme on your rear ends here, I’m thinking that the Number One Reason to have a lawfully recognised (or at least commonly accepted) rite of passage for adult transition is to encourage individual choice and responsibility, allowing future generations to know right from wrong, grow deep moral systems and foster inner strength. Woh… heavy, right?
I guess I just think it would be great to establish a more holistic journey for our youth to become men and woman that builds on the strengths of old ways and new ways. Some kind of ritual/ceremony/procession/gathering thingie that is a necessary piece of the puzzle that makes up a person along with education and social conditioning. Something that nurtures self-expression and freedom of choice and thought and lifestyle.
So here’s to thinking up a modern rite of passage. It could well be the answer to youth violence and crime. You never know…
P.S. I’ll post the next portion of the Get Your Life On course shortly. For now, I’m off to paint my toenails red (important stuff) and go to yoga class.
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