To be perfectly honest I was thinking about writing a long-ish post about ritual since I'm taking a class on it this semester and there were some interesting things I was thinking about. Some of these things were like what exactly constitutes a ritual, how and from where it derives meaning, the significance of the separation between thought and action, etc. But then I got lazy and also realized I really wouldn't have much to say on the matter so I figured a little story might suffice.
Tonight I went to the market to grab a Nestle Toll House ice cream sandwich. What can I say, those things are amazing. A stack of vanilla ice cream sitting in between two delicious chocolate chip cookies? You gotta be kidding me. So good. But I digress.
Anyway I took it up to the register and the girl working there asked me I wanted a receipt. I told her that I would, and as I stood there waiting as it came out of the machine. She grabbed it, ripped it, and turned around and threw it in the trash. She didn't seem to notice I was there so I just walked away.
What if I had really need that receipt? Why did she bother asking if she wasn't going to give it to me anyway? Did she really want to know if I wanted it or was she just trained to ask? And if she was trained to ask, what good is that training?
