Welcome (again) to the 2019 Secular Solstice.
We’ve been doing these for a while now. It’s starting to become, not just a ritual, but a tradition. Which is a very handy thing for rituals to be.
Those of you who have been to these before, please shout out what number Solstice this is for you.
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And those of you who haven’t, please shout “What’s going on?”
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I’m so glad you asked.
We are gathered here as a community to mark the longest night of the year with a ritual that upholds our values.
Since it is the longest night of the year, there’s going to be a lot of darkness. Sure, we start silly. But I’ll warn you now, it isn’t staying that way. It is one of our values to face darkness squarely, rather than retreat into comforting illusion.
Another value, not our most important, but one that’s getting attention this year, is that we care about the future. So we’ll be peppering this with past predictions, of which we can say how well they did. Just something to look forward to.
But I’m not here to enumerate our values. It would take a while, and telling values makes for lousy art.
I want to talk about us being gathered as a community.
Some of you are very linked in. Your partners, your friends, your roommates, your favorite writers – all are here in this room or in rooms like this one in other cities. And some of you aren’t. For some of you, maybe this is your first meatspace rationalist event. For some of you, this might be your first contact with some of the ideas we’re touching on tonight. (If so, this isn’t going to be a very good introduction, being optimized for emotion rather than clarity. But you’ll have plenty of opportunity to research later, and I have confidence in you.)
I only want to gently nudge you towards thinking of yourself as one of us. Such things shouldn’t be rushed. Eventually you will know whether you are or not.
But I do want you to feel welcome. Even if you’re confused. We’re all confused, one way or another.
And I do want you to be a part of things tonight. Tonight isn’t about those of us on stage doing things to you or for you. It’s about everyone in this room doing things together.
So I ask you to take the rest of the evening seriously. When it’s silly, take the silliness seriously. If you disagree, disagree seriously.
And I ask you to sing along. At whatever volume you’re comfortable with – even if that’s a whisper.
And I ask you not to applaud. Applause is a custom from performances, not rituals. Also, you’re active participants, so you’d be applauding yourself. And that’s just gauche. There’ll be a chance to applaud individuals at the end when I thank people by name.
That’s enough introduction for now. On with the ritual. Stepping up the seriousness one small notch.
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