National Ritual Celebration Week
by Matt Mattson
March 1-7, 2011 marks National Ritual Celebration Week in the fraternity/sorority world. Phired Up’s team is made up of proud members of fraternal organizations. We have members of Alpha Sigma Phi, Alpha Sigma Tau, Pi Kappa Phi, Delta Sigma Phi, Alpha Phi, and Chi Psi on our staff. Each of our Greek staff members deeply understands the power of not only the ritualistic ceremonies of our organizations, but more importantly the daily challenges that our rituals place before us.
Our company’s philosophy, educational messages, and overall approach is strongly rooted in Greek principles that have been taught to us through ritual.
When Josh and I founded Phired Up, it was largely because of the power of our ritual. The ritual of Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity challenged us to pursue Wisdom (see Step 7 of our book), it taught us to “Create and Perpetuate Brotherhood” (which we took to mean RECRUIT!), it taught us the virtue of charity and to pursue a life in the service of others (and our company’s mission has to do with changing the world for the better), and it taught us about Brotherly Love (which can be paralleled to Social Excellence).
As our team has grown, further fraternity/sorority values have found their way deep within the fabric of our company’s culture. We are so grateful for that!
My point in sharing this is… fraternal rituals, when committed to, manifest themselves in a person’s life work. Our daily choices add up. The small momentary choice you make today to be a better version of yourself, because your ritual challenges you to, might someday result in you having the privilege I have — I get to work along side brothers and sisters (fraternal and interfraternal), I get to live my ritual everyday, I get to be a part of a successful values-driven company, I get to be proud of who I’ve become (professionally, personally, as a husband, and as a father), and I get to look at the impact I’ve made on others so far in my life and be proud.
So this week isn’t just a week of living my ritual (every week is). This is a week when I give thanks to the founders of my organization for putting to paper a challenge that makes me a better person everyday. This is a week when I give thanks to my brothers (Josh and Geik at Phired Up, my chapter brothers, and those Alpha Sigs all over the world) for giving me this gift of fraternity. This is a week when I give thanks that I am one of a privileged few who have been so fortunate to have had the opportunity to go to college and join a fraternity. This is a week when I give thanks for my ritual.