Word: rituals
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While still a laywoman, Harris led the procession at the 1974 protest ritual in which her church's first women priests were illicitly ordained. During eight years in the priesthood, she has developed a reputation as a bright, articulate activist. Harris, who will be her church's 29th black bishop, is the convener of a coalition of minority and social-action caucuses that seeks to prod the Episcopal Church into what Harris calls "an increased advocacy role and some real risk taking." A prime risk that she favors: acceptance of practicing homosexual clergy...
...hear coming from the Beltway is the chanting of transition mantras -- the phrases that rise to the lips of Washingtonians every time someone new moves into the Oval Office. Like other ritual phrases, transition mantras are hallowed by time; they may even contain traces of truth. But as a steady background blur, they are as dulling to the mind as New Age music...
...final act, as the shade of young Emily Webb returns from cemetery hill to re-experience her twelfth birthday, Wilder convincingly argues that what makes all life look enticing is the distance granted by memory or imagination. As lived moment to moment, he contends, human existence is mostly ritual, habit and numb unawareness. Rather than be wistful for the life that is no longer, or never was, we should be open and venturesome in the time we have. The message is simplicity itself, yet its wisdom is so powerful that it has been echoed -- if never improved upon -- in countless...
...Government formed in the fuselage of Air Force One, yet another ritual that mocked dignity. But it was, perhaps, that magnificent plane that began to reclaim the majesty of the presidency. With the body of Kennedy onboard, the new President invested formally, Colonel James Swindal taxied his plane out on the emptied runway of Love Field. The ship paused in lonely splendor, then lifted off into a blue sky, clean and beautiful even in that mournful flight...
...election night was festive, Nancy in a long black skirt, some 30 guests from the staff, Cabinet and family. Almost before the group could make respectable headway through the buffet supper, Bush was declared a winner. The White House cranked out the canned victory statement. Reagan made the ritual calls to George Bush and Dan Quayle. His guests drifted into the night and toward the victory celebration in the White House West Wing and delirious parties up and down the capital's broad avenues. Ronald and Nancy Reagan stayed among the White House ghosts and their memories, the Reagan legacy...