But what have we lost?

I am not about to try to advocate any of the initiation rites we went over in class.

And I think what we have lost is more than just these initiation rites.

Doesn't it seem to take longer and longer to reach adulthood these days? I know many people whose children are living with them, or on their dollar, well into their thirties. I suppose we live longer, so no big deal, but there was a time when getting married at fifteen wasn't child marriage and initiation rites were in place to prepare you for a merciless world.

Though it's politically incorrect and perhaps distasteful, I love the phrase "white girl problems". Really, most of us primarily have white girl problems in our lives. The majority of people in the U.S. today are not fighting daily for survival - for food, water, sex; against enemies, animals and diseases. I'm not saying we live in a perfect world, but most of the things that are problems for us, are not things that people used to even have the time to think about. As genuinely fucked up as many of the initiation rituals which we learned in class were, I believe there were/are even worse things going on outside of the communities' reach which could happen to the people who practiced these rites. They were raising their children to be strong for survival. And as brutal as those rituals seem to us; life can/could be even more brutal.

And our initiation rituals? Sweet sixteen, turning twenty one, getting a doctorate, or even joining the military - to prevent myself from further expletives I'll use the word I used in my last blog: cakewalk. Our lives - with, perhaps, the exception of those in the military - are so much safer and less painful, that our initiations seem to have fallen in step.

I think in a lot of instances we've lost our sense of connection with life as we have lost our bond with death and pain, but I'll take it. I'd much rather jump in a snowy mountain lake; dig my hands in the cool, black dirt; or race through the cold wind in the air to remind myself I'm alive than have to endure the hardships so many have before me.