by kingmudsy

Wow, what an extremely generic title! It's almost as if it's been left entirely up to interpretation, opening the door for you to talk about all sorts of things you do when no one else is around!

So I found this fluffy article about rituals and rolled my eyes throughout the whole thing...But it did get me thinking about some of my personal rituals, and I enjoyed the train of thought. I wanted to give everyone the opportunity to think about their personal rituals and share them, if they feel so inclined.

According to sociologist Robert Wuthnow, rituals are any actions or events that have symbolic meaning beyond their instrumental value...A ritual is something done to prepare for action.

Surprisingly, the majority of the mentioned rituals were neither religious nor communal. Rather, they were personal, private, and occasionally angry. “One woman wrote about gathering all the pictures of her and her ex-boyfriend, taking them to the park where they met, and tearing them up. She made a point of saying ‘even the ones where I looked good,’ which I loved.”

Another explanation:

My mom’s friend had a personal ritual. Every Thursday night, she would come home after a long day of teaching dance classes. Then she’d climb into bed with a carton of vanilla ice cream. The end.

This story stuck with me not because of the ice-cream-in-bed part, though to my child self that did sound pretty good. For me, the real hero of this story was the solitude. Because a ritual feels extra special when it is just for you.

Anyway, define "ritual" and "private" however you want. What's some weird shit you get up to when you're on your own?