Writing

Weekly 2-page assignment due in every Monday class

• First create 3 private lists for yourself during the first week of the term.

(You may want to continue adding to these lists across the term.)

• Personal list #1: list aspects of yourself that you would like to

change

• Personal list #2: list aspects of your life that you would like to

change

• Personal list #3: list situations in the world that you would like to

change

Please make your lists with focus and a determined personal commitment to

seriously engage each of the aspects and situations that you name. These lists

are your private, personal meditation for your own use and should not be

shared or handed in.

1)On the first page, describe a ritual that is already part of your life. This ritual

can be an unconscious or semiconscious element of your life. Perhaps you’ll

only become aware of it by looking deeply. It could be an activity or series of

gestures that you’ve inherited, it could be something that you’ve seen or heard

that has inspired you, or it can be a ritual that you yourself have created for

yourself and the circumstances of your life. Please write with as much insight

and detail as you can. Perhaps there is a ritual you’ve created in response to

stress, panic, or a moment in your life where you needed to break through to

deeper meaning, to a different kind of fulfillment, in the face of failure, or

abandonment, or despair. Perhaps this ritual is crucial to your survival, your

wellbeing, your self-confidence and your sense of direction. Perhaps it is a

shared ritual that joins you to family or friends or to a supportive community.

Perhaps this ritual is organized, regular, repetitive, cumulative, and consistent,

or perhaps it is random or something that you’ve only done once in your life.

Please write with as much insight and detail as you can.

2)On page two of the 2-page assignment, please describe how you will

transform, adapt, or repurpose your existing ritual to address one of the topics

on your private list. Please write with as much insight and detail as you can.