Category: things, objects

Robots & Rituals

25 July 2023
people, actors, agents, identitythings, objects
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      I’m plagued by an earworm, a question that repeats and repeats, overheating the lobes of my brain:   Is ritual robotic?   Don’t ask the question in front of therapists or liturgists, otherwise, incarceration in the cuckoo’s nest.   The question is:   a category mistake (like “a green feeling”) divinatory (anticipates…

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The Barn and the Lab

9 February 2023
dialoguesethicsillnesslandmetaphor, symbolperformance, play, entertainmentreligion, spiritualityritual, festivalthings, objectswater
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                                   Community Restoration and Ritual Experimentation                                                 Ronald L. Grimes and Susan L. Scott   Below is a conversation between Susan Scott, founder of the award-winning Walkerton Water Stories Project (WWSP), and Ron Grimes, Director of the Ritual Studies Lab. Susan, a writer, and Ron, a ritual studies scholar, contemplate the possibilities for ritual…

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Rockin’ the Coffin

23 October 2020
death, mortality, the deadfilmfuneral, commemorationimagination, creativitymetaphor, symbolperformance, play, entertainmentquestionsritual, festivalthings, objects
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How does creativity help us cope? What role does the imagination play in allaying our age-old fears of loss and separation?  Filmmaker Cailleah Scott-Grimes leans into these questions in the short doc she’s made in collaboration with her father. Rockin’ the Coffin, a contrarian’s guide to the good death, was made possible by the CBC’s Creative Relief…

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Cápsula del Tiempo (Time Capsule)

19 May 2020
death, mortality, the deadfunerals, cemeteriesthings, objectstime, historyvideo & audio
5 Comments

Earlier I wrote a post about coffins: Before the pandemic arrived, I had begun building a coffin with my friend Ted not because I’m dying but because, as my daughter put it, Dad’s not afraid of dying. Truthfully, Dad is a bit afraid, but he displays his fear by defying death. Dad is self-inoculating, staving…

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Ritualizing in the Time of Coronavirus

30 March 2020
art & imagedeath, mortality, the deaddiseaseessays, articlesimagination, creativityreligion, spiritualityritual, festivalthings, objectswalking, processing, marching

by Barry Stephenson Dating from the 4th century, Rome’s San Marcello al Corso houses a crucifix that began its famed career by surviving a devastating fire in May of 1519. Three years later, during the height of a plague, friars of the Servant of Mary, disregarding the prohibitions imposed by the civil authorities, carried the…

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How Is a Ritual Like a Dutch Bike?

9 March 2018
bicyclingritual, festivaltheorythings, objects

When I first began teaching in the Netherlands, I marvelled at the number of Dutch bikes that swarmed the streets. Exiting Velorama, Nijmegen’s tightly packed little bike museum, I jokingly said to a colleague, “The Dutch imagination is profoundly ‘bicyciular.’” Each time I was back in Nijmegen, I had to walk past a bike shop….

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How little questions become bigger questions?

2 February 2018
dialoguessciencethings, objects

RadioLab is an exciting, quick-cut, question-asking podcast. Supposedly, it’s about science, but over the years, the questions keep growing. Little questions evolve into big questions if you are dogged in pursuing them as Jad and Robert, the two hosts, are. In “Bigger Little Questions” a kid asks why Earth is called “Earth.” Another question is whether…

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Mining words

8 December 2017
poetrystory & essaythings, objectsvideo & audio

Robert Fullerton, an ex-shipyard welder in Glasgow, says, “Imagine going down into the dirt to find a word that you’re going to elevate up into poetry. That’s mining for me.” Drawing inspiration from the sparks, he imagines them as “wee possibilities or wee ideas,” Fullerton began crafting poems while working at the shipyard. He discovered that his dark, solitary days provided the “perfect…

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