Hola Ladies undt Gentiles!

Hope you’ve all had a Merry New Years and a Happy Christ-mass!

I wonder if his next [Reli]143 class will use this place as well- in that case: dibs AND 1st’s! If not don’t mind if I occasionally jump in and out of here- so how’s everybody’s liminal experience so far? I lasted about a week and some change- so much for a New Years Resolution, but who the hell needs those?! But I remain optimistic and still care less (Oh! Yes- about the answers to things- you know: the course stuff, that too!)… if that counts as a ‘return to mysticism’, sort of…

All in all: “I’m so glad you guys are here,” and have a something-of-and-or-around a decent quarter.

Oh! Forgot! The baby(s), let [us] know how [they're] doing!

Ciao. (Not “Chow.”)

My experience with you wonderful maniacs has literally meant the world to me. Enjoy a well-deserved break and share your re-enchantment with the world!

Ciao. (That’s Italian. Also, it might be spelled wrong. If anyone wants to make an impromtu trip to Italy to get some pizza, I’M TOTALLY DOWN)

Shivering, upon arriving back at my apartment I immediately abandoned my damp clothing in a pile at the door, jumped into the shower and watched wistfully as the colors of my enchantment ran in streaks down my body, swirled around the drain and disappeared into the abyss. At this point I had not even begun to process what had transpired during the past 3 hours, I was sure that something had happened but just what was in no way clear. What was all too evident is that I had no motivation to study for my final the next afternoon, the exam was for my Philosophy of Religion class whose content could not have been more in opposition to what we had been working towards in the development of our ritual. I had struggled with  philosophy all quarter, being scheduled immediately prior to our class having to transition from a framework of criticism, doubt and logic in discussion of the eternal was exhausting and alienating, most days I found myself just beginning to emerge from a haze of profanity as our class was ending. Hoping a brief chat with a friend could help to center and refocus my resolve I reached in my bag for my phone, not there, I dumped out the entire contents onto the floor, nothing. Thirty minutes of hunting passed before I had succumbed to the reality that I had lost my phone… again.

Déjà vu set in as I typed up a short email informing everyone that I would be indefinitely unreachable by phone, picturing friends and family gently smiling as they knowingly shook their heads I exhaled deeply and clicked send. Not more than five minutes passed before I received my first response, it was from my best friend:

Hey, That sucks you lost your phone, you did manage to keep that one for a long time though! How are your finals going? I’ve been trying to call you, Steve was laid off today so that’s a bummer . But I believe God will take care of us. He has before when we were worse off, more than anyone you know that. So see everything will work out
Anyway let me know when you will be around and we will plan something.
Good luck on the rest of your finals!

I immediately replied:

Oh no I’m so sorry to hear that I know in my heart everything will be ok and he will find something else even better. I hope to be home Saturday I will give you a call and we will make plans, I can’t wait to see you guys I’ve missed you all so much!
All my love

But what I wrote was a lie, I wasn’t at all sure what I knew in my heart, all that I had become was a variable state of questions and emotions. I thought of the stress upon such a young family with small children who had just purchased a house, and puzzled over what kind of fucked up company would lay people off so close to Christmas. I felt powerless not being able to call, thankful for her faith in God , amazement and guilt that she was trying to provide reassurance. I realized that the earlier happenings of the day had heightened my emotional state, everything I would normally feel was processing magnified and unfiltered, it appeared the ritual had inactivated the left hemisphere of my brain.  I couldn’t begin to resolve the fact that at the same time I was jubilantly throwing colors Steve was receiving his pink slip. I had to escape my apartment, I felt a strong urge to return to the ocean I grabbed a sweater and descended the approximately 200 steps down to my beloved Windansea. Lying down I let the cold sand absorb the weight of my body, I looked up at the sky, the clouds were encroaching yet there were still patches of the void allowing partial glimpses into the heavens. Squinting,  I called to the name of the only constellation I have ever been able to identify, “Orion is that you?” He had no reply. It seemed my enchantment had left me before we even had a chance to make acquaintance.

Eventually I made my way back home and began a futile attempt to study. My mind kept wandering back to the hours before the ritual. As I was getting ready I was listening to NPR who was broadcasting President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. The speech was a masterfully crafted response by Obama, the Commander and Chief of a military engaged in two wars, who had been placed in very precarious position in being given the honor. The prematurely granted award was seen as a possible means of applying pressure and as an indictment of the actions and policies of the previous administration. Here are the passages from the speech to which my mind kept returning:

“We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations — acting individually or in concert — will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.”

“I make this statement mindful of what Martin Luther King Jr. said in this same ceremony years ago: “Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones.” As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King’s life work, I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there’s nothing weak — nothing passive — nothing naïve — in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.”

“But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda’s leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism — it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.”

“So part of our challenge is reconciling these two seemingly irreconcilable truths — that war is sometimes necessary, and war at some level is an expression of human folly. Concretely, we must direct our effort to the task that President Kennedy called for long ago. “Let us focus,” he said, “on a more practical, more attainable peace, based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions.” A gradual evolution of human institutions.”

I ended up missing my bus and being half an hour late for my final, in my haste I had forgotten a jacket so by the time I made it from the bus stop on Torrey Pines across campus to WLH I was thoroughly soaked. I gathered my exam from my professor who kindly smiled and took my place at the only remaining seat, in the very center of the room. Closing my eyes and exhaling  quietly I opened my blue book, almost immediately tiny droplets of pastel pinks and purples were gathering on the blank page. At first it didn’t compute but soon I realized that the color was coming from my hair, dripping wet with the colors of the day before. I looked around, no one had noticed, they were all hunched over their desks writing fervently, I couldn’t let the moment go just yet, outside the thunder was beginning to rumble over the sound of forty pens furiously scribbling, and me with the colors.

On the bus ride home, looking down at my off white converse speckled with enchantment I felt it all come together. The sentiment that had come back to me from the ritual was the sincere love and good will I felt towards every single member of our group. I now believed in the words I had written to my friend the night before.  Although drenched I felt warm, almost as though I was glowing, I attempted to psychically impart the same sentiment towards every single individual traveling with me that day on the MTS 30. As Obama said in his speech we have to acknowledge the truth and face the world as it is, but we must also make room for hope, the ideal…the enchanted. I have felt the power of performance, it is restorative, it is transformational, it can help us create a better reality.

Peace and love to all of you beautiful people <3

We started off on November 3rd brainstorming for ideas.  A select group of about five people spoke up.  As the class went on, more and more people had input.   It was nice seeing ideas float around for class period after class period.  Any idea I had was either proposed by someone else or someone had something better.  The class really started coming together as a community at this time I thought.  This second half of our class where we talked and communicated with each other about the ideas we had let us come together as one community.  Sharing a common goal led us to be united.  In other classes you sit apart from the teacher.  The teacher talks and as a student you listen.  In this class, at least the second half of it, was totally different from the normal class setting.  Everyday we sat in a circle and discussed our class final as a class!  I loved it.  I loved having just the students talk about what we learned the first half of the class and applying that to our own ritual.  It was fun seeing students rather than the teacher say what to do.  I believe this style of interaction led us to be a community which was collectively coming up with ideas on what we should do.  Like who better to tell us what to do than ourselves.

The ritual on December 10th was cool. I missed the first half of it which sucks, but even as I got there, I saw everyone coming together having a good time.  I myself was late due to the fact I had a final that I couldn’t get out of early enough to make it to the meeting place at three.  So I was left behind and it took me over an hour to finally find out where the ritual was taking place.  I was frustrated and felt the mundane world had gotten one over on me yet again.  I was late and didn’t know if I would ever find out where the ritual was.  But as soon as I found the place, the mundane part of me got shot or something because I felt suddenly at ease and peace with what had happened.  Maybe it was because everyone was having a great time, but it was so weird because I was pretty angry to say the least at not making it on time to my own ritual, but as soon as I was in the circle doing our group chant I felt relieved.  It didn’t matter what happened before the point I got there, because I was there and that’s all that mattered.  Maybe this had some sort of bigger impact on me from going from the mundane to the enchanted.  I’m not saying it didn’t for you guys, but the fact that right before I got there I felt I was really in this mundane world where shit happens and it tends to suck.  So from going to this absolutely shitty feeling to a feeling of relief PLUS enchantment thinking who gives a crap was quite magical.  By the end of the ritual I felt enchanted and like we said at the end of it, what better way to end finals than this.   I wouldn’t of had it any other way looking back at it now, because the experience I had of getting there made it all that much more enchanted for me.

With how this class went for me being said,  this experiment we all participated in called Religion 143 brought us all together as a community.  I had all the doubt in the world that it would actually do it, but it did.  Performing religion to me means how someone performs in the community.  One thing religion does is bring people together in a community where they share common beliefs and ideas.  This is one aspect of religion I think is really beneficial.  Everyone needs to be social in some way and religion for some people is that means to be social (to be part of a community).  The community aspect of religion is big in just about every practice of religion.  So for our class which is so obviously called Performing Religion, that’s just what we did as a class.  We performed religion.   We became a community of students who all know each other now because of this class.  Performing religion is performing in a community which is exactly what we did.  We made a community amongst ourselves by creating a ritual.  That’s pretty dead on with what I think performing religion means in our world.

I took a lot away from this class.  Going from the mundane to the enchanted was a perfect topic to pick for our ritual.  We live to much in a mundane world and to be enchanted, even if it was just for a day, was a nice feeling.  This performance we did of religion was better than I think anyone could of expected.  If it didn’t work for people I believe they dropped and we who were left were the ones who really benefited from the class.  We performed religion and the experiment worked.  This class should be taught again next year.  This experience of letting performance work on us worked.  We became a community of religious performers all contributing to each other.

Finally I just want to say thanks Cohen for teaching the class and letting me experience it first hand.  It was a bright spot of my 09 year as I’m sure it was for the rest of the class.  Entertaining, insightful, and eye opening is all I can ask for of any class (being cheesy is ok right William?).

The ritual was a day full of fun little surprises. I made my mask earlier in the day with the help of my husband, Andrew. Orginally my mask was a tacky purple and gold mardi gras mask. I had something ‘earthier’ in mind so Andrew spray painted the mask brown for me. He also helped me pick out flowers and leaves for decoration. I left half of the mask plain to represent the mundane, the other side was “enchanted” with items from mother nature. The leaves I had were neat; they came from the same plant yet some were green, some were red, and others were in the process of change. I loved the symbolism there. Andrew performed the manly task of supergluing everything on to the mask. While we let that dry, he grabbed a saw from the garage and picked out a perfect branch for me. I loved how ‘into it’ he let himself be. Since the pregnancy, and therefore, Andrew, has been a big theme in the class for me, it was only fitting that he became a role in my ritual preparation. That was such a treat!

At the trailhead, the ritual began with the mindless chatter. After a while, it really sunk in how often we have these empty encounters with people. At least once a day I ask someone how they are doing without expecting or needing to really hear their response! And the same goes for when I am asked by others, how sad!! When did human contact become merely a means to an end? Alright, off we went down the trail. I very much enjoyed the mindful breathing because it reminded me of yoga, and I felt the practice was very effective in making me present during the ritual. Once everyone got vocal and roudy, I giggled a little, but not in an embarassed way. In fact, it was fun to be a part of something that I knew onlookers were terribly curious about! The fire scene with everyone asking their questions felt therapeutic. I could tell that a lot of thought was put into the questions and I hoped everyone experienced a sense of relief similar to mine when dropping the log into the fire. Although my question might take a lifetime to answer, there was something proactive about at least asking it outloud. Acknowledgment is a powerful step!

Initially I was apprehensive about the kumkum powder. I wasn’t sure what the purpose was. Once it started, however, it became clear. Sometimes you just need to let go and have fun! Rebecca was kind enough to give me a bag so I got to be an attackER, not just an attackEE. And I LOVED how everyone included the baby There were so many colors rubbed on my belly, what a blast! Between running around in the sand and hiking up that hill, I got quite a workout! I felt mentally and physically cleansed leaving that ritual.

This class/ritual has taught me how important it is to be in the present moment. I regret every class I didn’t attend because I now know that I missed out on the development of our community. I hope to run into everyone again sometime in the near or distant future. And when I ask how you are, don’t be afraid to answer truthfully… I’ll genuinely want to know!

P.S. I’m on Facebook, look me up! 

Lauren Tyler

When our class first began formulating our ritual in the beginning of the latter half of the quarter, I felt a strong sense of detachment from all the excitement I perceived around me. When Professor Cohen stated that there were going to be people who would walk away from the ritual without any real tie to the performance, I was pretty certain I would fall under that category. The ideas that sprung up during the preparation weren’t insane, but part of me felt like the whole ritual idea was kind of unruly and silly. To be completely honest, I felt a bit embarrassed even thinking about what I would have to do, but I justified it by stating that it was just for the sake of getting by in the class.

If there is one character I can relate my whole experience in this class to, it is without a doubt, Pentheus. He, too, rejected a form of “religion,” because he was repulsed by the social disorder Dionysus created. In his desire for everyone to adhere to “normal behaviour,” i.e., function according to his law, he tried to sieze control of what was beyond him. And eventually, instead of suppressing the ritual worship, he ends up submitting, and contributing to it.

Dionysus created a context to raise the curiosity within Pentheus, and slowly drew him in more fully into participation. His full transformation from a tough “masculine” figure to a passive “feminine” form was set forth through his acceptance of  Dionysus’ directive. Although I wasn’t as comfortable howling or making animal noises down to the beach, I definitely felt a strong sense of self-presence as we were speaking out our questions, throwing powder around, and looking straight into the eyes of another. As Rappaport asserts, ritual is performative, and in being engaged you are affected.

While there are a few things that went differently between Pentheus and myself (for example, how my engagement in this ritual didn’t lead to my death), probably the biggest dissimilarity was the influence I had (with the rest of the class) for constructing the ritual. To believe that we started from scratch, nevertheless, would be a mistake; many of the elements of performance that we used were extracted from former rituals. However, what I appreciated most was that our ritual encompassed both extremes of hierarchies of formality, and enactments of meaning.

Though we performed canonical, stylized words and acts that were rigidly specified (and borrowed from other sources), much of the enchantment was a result of the self-referential elements that each individual brought to the ritual. Although Rappaport suggests that acceptance is not the same thing as belief, I have definitely seen how the willingness to put myself in tension with the canonical during the period of the ritual, can lead, maybe not to belief, but at the very least, a very tangible creation of community.

Though it might seem strange to say to classmates who I haven’t spent time with outside of what our course required, I’m really going to miss you guys.

- Susan Cho
p.s. if you guys want to hang out, grab coffee and be friends, I am up for ittttttt (seriously! haha)

I guess you could call me religious. I’ve been Christian since high school, and I follow the rules. So that’s why when someone said: “I think whatever we do, it should be really pagan,” on the first day our class began brainstorming for our ritual, and when people smiled as if to say they agreed, I immediately allowed my heart to disengage a bit from the class—my mind could do all the talking.

So to be honest, I surrendered very little emotional investment to the creation of our project. I enjoyed the community aspect of it all—the teamwork and engagement with the other students, but I didn’t really care what the outcome was. I figured it would be a simple day at the beach where we played with fire and masks and some colorful powder—fun and silly at best, miserably cold and soggy at worst.

———————-
“…among other things, ritual represents the creation of a controlled environment where the variable (i.e., the accidents) of ordinary life may be displaced precisely because they are felt to be so overwhelmingly present and powerful. Ritual is a means of performing the way things ought to be in conscious tension to the way things are…” -Jonathan Z. Smith
———————-

The very foundations of this class, RELI 143, were built on the presumption that performance is transformative and that the act in itself creates space for the performer and audience to experience change—mind, body, or soul. Like Smith states, a certain tension is created within ritual between the “is” and the “should be.” So I guess I should’ve known that this space we were creating on Blacks beach would be more than simple acting and following script. And as we discussed in class, our aim was to make it ritualistic and spiritual, but not religious.

And here’s where my heart resonated with everything our class was about: Did you know Jesus was hardly religious? He followed some traditions, but he broke more. Furthermore, Jesus was all about creating sacred spaces—he was set on taking the mundane and ritualistic religiosity of the people and re-enchanting their spirituality. It’s not that he would go about pronouncing various areas sacred, but that nearly all of the most incredibly spiritual and sacred “performances” of his life happened in unsacred, or profane, places: marketplaces, poor villages, pig farms (obviously not where a Jewish rabbi should be), Roman execution sites, and the like.

Our ritual was deeply spiritual for me. The community of friends, the staggering (literally staggering, since it wasn’t difficult to make me stagger with a mask on) beauty of the ocean, clouds, and light, which, individually, was incredible, but in harmony created symphonic tapestries beyond compare, the vulnerability of each question and the symbolic act of surrendering it to the fire, and the subsequent freedom—what an experience! I personally surrendered a lot of things to God that day. My question was: How much of death contributes to life? I’ve been on a journey of allowing parts of me that that I thought were important (that really aren’t) to die, in order that I could experience life to the full.

And here’s what I’m learning: sacred, spiritual, or meaningful (they’re not all that different) experiences don’t need to be confined to a church—they’re not meant to be confined. Ever. They’re meant to be shared. Anywhere. I mean, I love the church and I have met God on numerous occasions within those four walls, but they’re just walls.

I guess most people would call me religious. I’ve always tried to be, but as of the last few months, I try not to be; Jesus wasn’t. Christianity is about a relationship with the living God, and a relationship can never be “religious.” So, emerging from this class, I have a new prayer: Jesus, break down the walls of religiosity in my life. I want relationship—the kind where I can throw powder around and have fun.

The ritual was my first experience. It made me think about enchantment. Actually, I have felt enchantment sometimes in daily life such like when I am in a sensitive condition, but it was passive. Performing ritual is the way to enchant actively, so it is harder to feel the way because our mind is not as simple as we can bring our mind to special condition so easily. In order to bring our mind to the special state and get away from mundane, the process of performing ritual becomes naturally important. I like everything we did from beginning to the end. However, my most impressive moment was staring at eyes.
We were staring at each other’s eyes for long time. The feeling was infinite. Her eyes were the perfect beautiful round, and their color was blue or green unlike mine. Since her face was covered with the mask, her eyes took my all attention. Little by little, my focus was drawn by the eyes with perfect round shape, feeling like the black hole. Suddenly, I realized there was another light which had very warm figure. Right next to her right eye, sunset was lighting. The contrast was magnificent, and my time was stopped. As the sunset became blighter with hiding into the ocean, her eyes started to get dark. Gradually, the sky and her eyes increased their darkness, and I was forced to come back to the real world. It was very short time and fabulously beautiful. I realized the moment was enchantment on her eyes.
At the state, the time we performed was significant. Relating to my culture, I love a short moment beauty such as fireworks, cherry blossoms, and sunset. Our performance exactly hit the time on sunset on the day. If the beauty lasts for long time, the beauty would fade away and becomes merely normal thing.
Speaking of our ritual, the nature around us was necessary to talk about. Generally, four elements are important for our lives. If we lack fire, we would be cold. No water makes us dry. No ground makes us not feel stable. Wind is needed for traveling every creature on the earth. I believe that religion and ritual are related to nature very much. I do not think we had enough time to feel the four elements near us; however, the four elements did influence our feelings for sure. When we walked down to the beach, wind brought the fresh scent of the ocean on the path. We interacted to each other on the edge of the ocean, and we formed circle around fire, feeling the ground by sitting on the beach.
Performing religion in our world means reconsidering who we are and where we are from. In daily lives, we tend to forget most basic thing. We may forget we are a part of nature. We may forget our real face by putting on mask to socialize. I am not concern with god. As we discuss beginning of class, I agree with that religion is all about human beings. Religion gives us good opportunity to think about morality, good behavior, and relationship between nature and humans. Therefore, in this ritual, I also think about those stuffs. Since I have never engaged myself to the ritual before, the experience to perform ritual was good first step for me.

My previous post was luridly suggestive.  That’s right.  Lurid.  With the living tissue of my body, i was cursing expletives into the very digitized air that surrounds the screen before you. FUCKK!  Infuckingchantment! That’s right.  Fucking.  Such language, so absolutely excessive, it renders a blog past one’s palette.  Past one’s flavorful bearings.  Its just straight up crooked, underneath the broken broiler.  Undercooked. An unsavory realm of written experience; spoiling the buds of those uninitiated tongues!

But ha!  Ha?  HA!!!! For we, yes we, this class of reli 14three, we have been initiated.  We’re in it man.  Way past the conventions that turn impulsively released exuberance into “curse-words”.  Way past the conventions that turn a final into fear.  Way past the “hello how are you im doing fine and yourself im doing fine too thank you”.  Hell yea.  We’re way past that.  We’re initiated into a life in which these fairly silly conventions dissolve into the sea.  Along with my urin.  Because, in case you didn’t know, on Wednesday 10^th, down there on Black’s Beach, i did indeed sprout a very intentional leak all up in that ocean.  And the reason i wrestle with no hesitation in telling you this now is the same reason why there was no internal struggle when i tore down the zipped-dam just four days ago: its because of all ya’ll.  And me.  And the community that we have created together.

Community is an interesting word, and it is loaded with the baggage of all sectors from lived experience.  Political, theological and beyond!  But the community we have crafted here is different.  Or similar.  Either way, here’s what it makes me write:

We enrolled in a class that seemed bent on pushing us beyond the boundaries of our assumed comforts.  We’d be put into positions where we’d be exposing our emotional flux in heavy written articulation (blog), as well as physical (performance in front of class).  It seems as if these parameters create the structural foundation of that classic dichotomous stage.  Some shall perform, others shall watch.  Yea.  It almost sounds like i’m paraphrasing, but oh, with such purpose!

For although i’m not necessarily uncomfortable in public places, and exposing myself in any form weighs like feathers upon my conscience, there was a separate expectation and intent going into my actions as conducted in this class.  For as we began to explore ourselves in a public eye, one enclosed within our blogospherical classroom of a world, we soon became a public soon fairly aware of itself.  A self-aware public.  Or to speak more personally, as i can speak genuinely of little else, i felt very aware of the   progressively more open means by which people expressed themselves in our class. And it seemed as if everyone else was fairly aware of the way that I was expressing myself, also in an increasingly more vulnerable manner.

Thoughts were expressed with an understanding that history was there.  Thigns could be said, and they would be related to other things.  Something angry said by William?  Well, he isn’t always angry now is he?  Or is he happy?  William isn’t happy!  Whats going on here!

We came to know each other.  And that knowledge created a socially supporting community.  That’s what community was here.  Familiarity.  One could express themselves one way, knowing that it wouldn’t be the lasting impression that they left upon the others.  Instead, we became complex.  We were allowed to be very human.  Complex and understood!

Thus, when we did come into that ritual on Dec. 10^th, I felt a sense of knowing that predated the action.  We were all in it together.  A hugely absurd version of a once final that we all enacted knowing that we had crafted it together.  Knowing that it was our creation, and knowing that however we carried ourselves throughout the ritual, it would be only one moment of many.  Without expressing ourselves previously, this sense of togetherness could’ve never existed.  We would’ve been walking into those sands not only as individuals, but as individuals entirely intertwined in our own nets, unable to share the intellectual, emotional or physical space of another.  But with the sense of familiarly we kindled, the ritual became different.  It became a performance.  We knew the script.  We knew it was contrived.  We knew that people were simply doing as they were to do, as they were going to do, because – hey, they were themselves, and those selves were known. We were able to spectator and perform, and see it form all persepctives. And this feels good.  This is community.  Familiarity that bleeds the un-birthed blood into all of our veins!  I felt it.  And once that ritual was enacted, that familiarity solidified our bonds.   We had truly became a we. A single from the whole.  One with history and complexity.  This was reenchantment.  Pissing while all watch, pissing the public piss without a hint of “oh, the public gaze!”  A reenchantment of the urinary tract!  i felt as if we were all on the same tract.  And it was lovely.  Absolutely babbliciously lovely!

So yes, we were there, and forever will have been.  See you guys next quarter.  i might hug many of you.

I found the process of creating our ritual both challenging and rewarding. In trying to focus on performativity, I felt that our method sometimes understated semioticity. We’d get all kinds of great fantasies about what would be fun and not discuss how it would connect to other concepts in a direct way. For a long time I did not understand why we were choosing to wear masks at all, though it seemed to be something everybody agreed was worthwhile. Pure fun is great and so is meaning, and even better than either alone is when they positively reinforce each other.

I was also surprised to find that, come ritual day, the sky was clear and the class was not interested in going to the ho chi minh trail. In retrospect, it makes it seem that there were many who weren’t too keen on that idea but weren’t willing to say so in class. Honesty and participation seem essential to an undertaking like this. How could community function successfully without them? Having said that, I very much enjoyed the way that it made our ritual more public.

As for the ritual itself: it worked. Since, I have been completely and utterly enchanted. The actual enactment was, I thought, surprisingly smooth, with a natural flow rather than discreet sections separated by explicit transitions. For the most part everyone was mindful. We were a community, and by virtue of shared performance. Our feedback loop may not have involved “actors” and “spectators” but it was certainly autopoietic.

Afterwards, I was reminded of the feedback Heather had given in class that our community would have benefited from more performance throughout the quarter. Completely agree. That sense of community could have been engendered much earlier than at the end of the final. Indeed it felt strongest on other days that we performed together and weaker on days which we did not.

I’m only articulating what little constructive criticism I have to offer, but believe me the positive is there. I enjoyed everyone’s company, their unique cultural heritage,  way of playing, sharing, even intellectualizing. So glad to get to know you all.