There is a vast number of hypothetical traditions that could be practiced, compared to the few that actually are. If you were inventing a new tradition that you and millions of others would practice one day each year for many years to come, and you wanted it to produce positive effects on the participants, what would your new tradition be?
Below are a few ideas for hypothetical traditions. I’m sure some would dislike each of these, but I’m hoping some of them would add net value if actually practiced.
(1) Day of Admiring
On that day, you contact each of the most important people in your life and tell them one thing that you like or appreciate about them. When someone contacts you telling you what they like about you (even if they aren’t on your list of most important people), you respond with something you like or appreciate about them as well (as though they were on your list).
(2) Curiosity Ceremony
You get together with a group of loved ones. You, and everyone else attending, think about what they are most curious about or interested in regarding all of the other attendees. You each then write down (on slips of paper) one anonymous question for each other person in the room (with the name of the person the question is directed at on the back of the slip). The questions are then grouped based on the recipient. Next, you sit in a circle and go around in clockwise order, each answering for the group one of the questions you received. The answerer can choose which order to answer their received questions in and can skip any ones they want. This continues until the allotted time runs out (e.g., 90 minutes).
(3) Making Right
You think of two people who you have wronged or let down. You then write out, to the best of your ability, what you think caused you to wrong these two people (describing both the proximate cause and the root cause), followed by what you plan to do differently in the future to reduce the chance that you wrong others in a similar fashion. Finally, you pick one of these two wronged people and contact them with an apology, along with some info about your plan to reduce the chance of you causing this kind of wrong in the future.
(4) Day of Growth
You gather with loved ones, and each person separately writes down their name on a piece of paper and three ways they are willing to consider trying to grow or improve as a person over the next year. Then the piece of paper for each person is passed around, and everyone votes on which of those three areas of growth they think that person should focus on for that year by putting a checkmark next to the corresponding item. Finally, the winning growth area (i.e., the one receiving the most votes) for each person is circled, and the papers are passed around one final time. This time, each person writes down something specific they’d be willing to do to try to help or support this person is trying to achieve their growth goal (e.g., lending advice, making an introduction, giving encouragement, etc.)
(5) Priceless Gifts
You gather with loved ones, and instead of giving gifts, you exchange cards. On each card, instead of wishing well, you describe what you would buy that person if you had an unlimited amount of money. Whimsical, fun, silly, impossible, and serious gift descriptions are all welcome.
(6) Eating Symbols
You gather with loved ones, and each person brings one dish (potluck style). The person bringing each dish also makes up a metaphor that the dish represents, that you are supposed to think about while eating it. These can be serious or silly. Each metaphor requires some justification of how it pertains to the given food, but it is totally acceptable for the link to be tenuous or even bullshit.
For instance, attendees might say that:
- the spaghetti is a metaphor for how each of our lives is influenced by, and in its turn influences, the choices of countless other people, just as each piece of spaghetti rests on countless other strands of spaghetti.
- the eggplant is to serve as a reminder, while we eat it, that we are harmed if we are not authentic to who we are and pretend to be something we are not, just as the eggplant is a much better plant than it is an egg.
- the tomato soup, salty and red like our life-giving blood, is to remind us that we are mortal and that we are best off treasuring each day that we are lucky enough to have on this earth.
- the fruit salad, tastier because it combines so many different fruits, is to remind us that we are all made better when we surround ourselves with those who have different perspectives than our own.
The meal progresses in stages, with each person getting up one by one and presenting their own dish and the metaphor they suggest you think about while eating it. Then that dish is passed around the table for anyone who wants to take a portion.
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