"Youth's native sadness
dramatizes itself ever against time
in experimental mime
against immensities."
___ Ross Nichols, "The Cosmic Shape"
There are no formal rites of passage in our society to help children become adults: young people graduate, take their driving test, become sexually active, try intoxicants, get tattooed or pierced. Forever testing the limits of their powers, they seen to know no restraint. This applies to girls just as it does to boys. In societies, where rites of passage are customary, physical ordeals push participants to their limits of endurance, courage, and dedication; sometimes failure means actual death. While we may view such rites of passage as barbarous and unnecessary, we should note that our own children create their initiatory rites in the same daring spirit; running across the freeway, climbing up tall buildings, and driving at top speed down winding coastal roads are just a few of these initiations. Yes, youth dramatizes itself all right!
We have made our choice not to initiate our children into adulthood with formal ceremonies that bring them to the edge of their powers. Having done so, we cannot blame them for making their own rites. Young people need to claim a name for themselves. In Celtic society adolescence was often the time when a nickname became attached to the childhood name, or when the original name was changed to one that reflected a more adult commitment - a name 'discovered' in someone's chance remark, perhaps. How can our children make their own name in our society unless they are given the initiations that bring them the opportunity?
"Make your own initiatory blessing for adolescents about to launch themselves into the world."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
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