Ritual. What Is It Good For?

Not Absolutely Nothin’, but . . .

The last Thursday in November means something to some people. Why should it? It’s fine if it does, that’s not my question.

Why do we do what we do when we do it and how we do it? That’s my question. Why perform these rituals of life?

Philosopher David Hume wrote:

Custom, then, is the great guide of human life. It is that principle alone which renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with…