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SNAP COUNTRY USA
WHY READ THE INTERNET
ANYWHERE ELSE
DING
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August 31, 2010
I was volunteering in the Silver Falls State Park for three weeks. I turned 28. Now I'm going to Canada.
Rags are a thing that is this really big part of my life but probably seems really weird
to people who have not been to Y camp before. Like there is a handshake, and a creed, and ceremonies (in the dark! in the forest! with candles! and
blindfolded trust walks!).
Rags are challenges
that you take on so that you can work toward being the person you want to be. You wear a certain color of bandana with the Ragger symbol silkscreened on them
to remind yourself of the challenge you accepted.
I looked this up online, and one program's website had a chart that said "Rags do
NOT mean this..." vs "Rags DO mean this..." For example, Rags are a dedication rather than a reward. They are an outward symbol of an inward goal rather than
a cool decoration you can wear and collect like Pokemon cards, or Silly Bands, which is what is in right now, apparently.
But another thing it said was
that Rags do not mean you are good, without error - it means that you want to be better. I think for a long time I didn't know this - I remember doing
Unraggerly things when I was 20 or something and then being like, "Whatever, I have a GOLD RAG. I'M A GOOD PERSON." Which may be true, I may have been
a good person, but I was still making choices that were really, quite bad. Like that time I was mean on the internet for years. You know, that one time?
This is a reading that happens during Blue Rag ceremonies, and over the years I have grown to like it, a lot.
I have to live with myself and so
I want to be fit for myself to know;
I want to be able as days go by,
Always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don't want to stand, with the setting sun,
And hate myself for the things I've done.
I can never hide myself from me,
I see what others may never see;
I know what others may never know,
I never can fool myself, and so
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience free.
For those who don't know, the readings in Rag ceremonies are generally out of the Bible, or rhyme, or are at times, too silly to bear. But, in the nature
of the YMCA, summer camp, and things for children - it is something you just grow to love, and let it be what it needs to be for you. Kind of like that restaurant
you really love that has its menu in comic sans - it just becomes another reason to love it.
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