“You Gotta Dance with ‘Em What Brung Ya”
A few of us Grangers were discussing Grange ritual as we waited for the meeting to begin at Union Hill’s visitation the other night. We were pretty across the board in how we felt about the ritual from “love it all, all the time” to “will do only what the letter-of-the-law requires and no more.” Regardless how we felt, when it came time for the meeting, we all knew what was required of us and did it.
A couple of the women in the group strongly expressed the belief that it is the ritual that binds us together as Grangers. That is a valid point, in my opinion. We ought to be able to go into a Grange meeting, anywhere, and feel at ease because we know what is going to be done and in what order. There is real comfort in the familiar. Equally valid, in my mind, is the notion that it isn’t ritual that makes the Grange what it is, but rather, the belief in our founding precepts. That “meeting together, talking together, working together, and in general, acting together for our mutual protection and advancement” and our good works in the community bind us together as the Grange.
We’ve probably all seen empty ritual in dying, myopic granges and know what a waste of our good name that is. By the same token some of us lucky ones have seen new or newly-revitalized granges flounder through ritual that is foreign to them for a lack of understanding and mentorship. Both of these are sad situations that we need to answer. I don’t think the answer lies in sending around “an enforcer” but rather in understanding our history and educating our brothers and sisters about it.
When I started thinking about this, I was reminded of a quote by the late journalist and political commentator, Molly Ivans. She once quipped about something during the Clinton administration by saying in Texas they believed “you gotta dance with ‘em what brung ya.” Regardless how we feel about the ritual that is required of us, we are meeting in a Grange hall under the auspices of the Patrons of Husbandry and we need to acknowledge that is who “brung us”.
Sometimes, just a change in perspective can be really helpful. At the leadership conference in Vale, Malcom Trupp said he refers to the ritual opening as a formal opening. I found my jaw unclenched a little when I thought of it in that way. And, as new potential Grangers began to arrive at the Vale Grange that evening, I was able to explain to them that the meeting would begin with a formal opening. No nervous looks or questions about “what kind of ritual?” followed that simple explanation. Then at lunch the other day with a master of a grange that is in the letter-of-the-law camp and with a high percentage of folks whose religion could be described as “other” but good, energetic, sincere Grangers all the same, I found myself explaining that the requirement of having the bible open, instead of being divisive can just be seen as an acknowledgement of the sacred, instead of adherence to any particular belief. No change in what is done, just a change in how we think about it.
As the meeting at Union Hill began and my husband was asked to fill in as Steward and he knew what to do to hand off the flag to Ceres, I found myself being grateful to Bonnie and Jerry George, our first grange mentors, who insisted that the grange be open in “due form” at each and every meeting. I’m a practical, letter-of-the-law type myself, but I also believe that regardless how often we do the dance, we all need to know the steps
