A Raga for April 26th

raga of spring - Vasant Ragini, Ragamala, Rajput, Kota, Rajasthan. 1770.Krishna dances with maidens1.  As someone who aspires to rationality, I find the irrationality of ritual endlessly fascinating (whether this irrationality is of the exotic, hardcore, or wimpy varieties).  While specific rituals are always irrational to the outsider, count on ritual as ostensibly purposeless fixed-action pattern to slither its way into even the most consciously rational of life-models.  

2.  The familiar algorithms of ritual provide soothing punctuation to the unmanageable run-on sentences of modern life.  Like a defrag program, their regular employment serves as an anchor to help everything else run smoothly.

3.  The role of strictly observed ritual in my life in Fukushima was to allow me to wake up everyday and play with my children until the early afternoon, ride my bike to work while listening to science lectures, teach classes until evening, ride my bike home, and write for three or four hours everyday.

4.  Through this deliberate existence, I managed to fit full-time employment, active parenting, an hour and a half of moderate exercise, an hour and a half of study, and an article into each day.  This was only possible by making small yet compounding improvements in ritual efficiency over the course of almost two years of the complete systemic control provided by strict observance.

5.  Since coming to America exactly a month ago, I've had no sustainable ritual presence in my life.  Without ritual and its anchored associative permutations, time disappears into the void.