Rites of passage (#552)

What are these things we call rites? They are growth experiences. They are the circumstances that allow us to gain perspective. Often moving from the simple to the complex. When we gain these understandings we have elevated our view of life in general. Rites of passage can be described as maturity. These are good things and allow for our generations to move steadily forward into the existing unknown. Rites of passage come in many forms. Formal education, completion of social and religious traditions and simple/complex life experiences. Rites of passage are important because when we are born we have no perfect guideline for living. Through rites of passage we assimilate ourselves into generally accepted practices within our society. Rites of passage are not perfect either but they do help us maintain some order in our otherwise chaotic lives. There can be great debates as to the importance and efficacy of rites of passage and whether they actually serve us well. I think they do in the sense that some order is better than no order. A default position at best but we are still in our infancy as to the timeline of human evolution. For now a rites of passage gives us greater hope of keeping our society together with the hope that time will allow us to evolve into a society that is less institutional in it's application of conformity and more into a society that has unlimited possibilities for it's individualness. Even so, some form of rites of passage will still be present.