ritual
A ritual is an ancient performative act humanity invented to quell anxiety by adhering to meaningless routines. Within a solemn atmosphere, participants repeat indecipherable gestures in unison to fabricate a sense of communal belonging. It is a paradoxical expenditure of time and energy where form demands depth it never grants. Symbolic objects and arcane utterances serve merely as props in the theater of self-transcendence. When it ends, life resumes as if nothing happened, leaving only the fundamentalist satisfaction of having 'done it properly' behind.