Part 1 to 3.
I read an email that asked to do some reading, thinking, writing, and begin experimenting. We read this article and were asked to think a lot about its content.
The difference between "ritual" verse "Ritual" is that one is written with a capital letter 'r' and the other is lowercase. Philosophically there are opinions that extent beyond the style of writing. For example, some people want to believe that there are differences so I have to figure those out. I heard a professor say that kneeling in a Catholic church is an example of a ritual. They also said brushing your teeth, but other people argued that brushing your teeth is more considerably a "routine." Building this out more.
These are five rituals I was able to think of for this post:
Saying grace, a ritual that occurs before a meal. It’s an act of expressing gratitude.
Holy Communion is a religious ritual that follows a structure and order about the transformation of ordinary food items, bread and wine, into a sacred item - body and blood of God.
Saying the national anthem is a ritual that involves people in The U.S.A. placing their hand over their heart and signing along. This is a key part of major league sporting events such as in MLB.
Reviving or giving awards, a ritual that is strongly apparent in Olympic Games medal ceremonies. It’s associated with acknowledgement.
Swimming has a common ritual. Before a final swim meet, by a matter of a week or so, swimmers have been known to do things to their hair. This includes giving strange hair cuts, bleaching, or dying exotic colors. The night before the big swim meet, each swimmer shaved the rest of their hair off their head and bodies. This ritual is about bonding and beliefs. The belief is that not having hair will improve performance in competition by reducing drag in the pool’s water.
Another thing asked was to recall a memory involving smell. A fragrance I remember strongly is the smell of moth balls in my childhood friend’s basement where we played games together.
Lastly, we had to start working with chocolate. I went online and found two methods of working with chocolate. The recipes were simple. For one, I used a double boiler. For the second, I used the microwave. I split the yeilded product into half each time. Then, I added mint extract to one of the halves. I was interested in seeing how this would affect the experience; mainly taste, but also a consideration that a new ingredient, even an extract, could potentially altered the form for all I knew.
There are four small foil loaf pans in my refrigerator right now. Two types of standard chocolate fudge as the recipes directed, but then two that have the added mint extract. I consider it good to have a version with and without to make comparisons.
I took process photos along the way. I also have two links – 1 and 2 – to share the fudge recipes. They were selected because of their difference in ingredients and process. I am interested in testing the outcomes in class. I wonder if using a microwave affects the experience of the chocolate compared to the double boiler.
Photos are click-throughable below:
