What does my ritual mean to me and how do I show congruence and commitment to it?
When I think of what my ritual means to me, I try to imagine what our Immortal Six set out to do when founding FIJI. Did they set out for a Fraternity that would lead to the brotherhood that I've experienced through FIJI? Did they set out for a place where any college man could call home? Did they set out to build a Fraternity that would be accepting of any college man who shared our values?
I think (and hope) they set out to do all of these things. In FIJI, I have found a bond that I had not found with any other peers. Through FIJI, I have learned to push myself to be a better person and a better brother. Being a part of FIJI, has taught me to live the values of my Fraternity in all that I do (see previous post), but even more so, I know what it means to be a part of something bigger than the individual.
My values are shared by all FIJIs and Greeks are united by the rituals we perform. As we work to improve our community, we have to rely on our values to guide our actions. Not only do we need to guide our own actions, but we need to hold our brothers and community members accountable to represent our Fraternity and community in the best light possible. By following our values, we can live our ritual in a way that the Immortal Six envisioned. And when living our values, we can be sure to carry on the legacy that our Immortal Six set out when founding the alpha chapter of Phi Gamma Delta.
I like that you touched on accountability of brothers and greeks in general. I feel like sometimes as a community, we can lack some accountability for our actions. We need to make ourselves aware that we are constantly representing not only our chapters, but greeks as a whole. If we could all just follow our values, life would be so simple.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you Josh and Eli. This is the double edged sword of the balance between us being separate entities and being "influenced" by the University. The reasons we have the Standards of Excellence isn't because we need it, it is because some chapters aren't living up to their rituals. If we all did what we say we would do and took care of ourselves then there would be a lot less tension between the Greek and OSU community.
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