There is a wide gap between those who love and those who hate ceremony. Ceremony is the more detectable blueprint of social custom and etiquette and thus affords a common basis of disunion. By virtue of its imperative prescriptions the topic engenders the most fundamental rejoinders. It doesn’t matter whether the ceremony is religious, military, pedagogical or otherwise. The underlying theme of ceremony is control.  It is not however that feature that causes the riff. Rather it is an objection heralded by “Get over it!” that captures what essentially is a recommendation to cut to the chase or perhaps more astutely, “Get to the point!”

It is accepted that certain people or institutions deliberately obstruct directness. The devices are complication and fascination used to camouflage the elemental character of the advance. For those on the receiving end of such obfuscation it is an intolerable darkness and confusion. Esoteric subjects such as banking or law are customary provocations. But “getting to the point” with the financial industry doesn’t compete with the rhetoric surrounding certain other social enterprises jockeying for attention. In matters such as these, best to be guided by the adage, “If she knows why she loves him, she doesn’t!” Basically do not be confounded by the motive. Often the instinct of caution arises instantly. For those who willingly or by accident linger upon the exhibition, the only way out is by intellectual pursuit.

The evolution of the cryptic thesis is itself normally shrouded in apocryphal detail. It is always more easy to explain something where there is evidence of the postulation; barring that, obscurity is the answer. A simpler solution to authenticity (without actually going there) is to surmount the foundation for the assertion and rely instead upon its current adornment and entertainment value. Make no mistake, retail is not limited to tangible resources; it includes inventions of the mind.

Not surprisingly bluntness of thought is frequently accompanied by nimbleness of words. More of that “Get on with it!” business. A confrontation between differently minded people on the subject of ceremony will usually precipitate an explosion of rebuttal from those who prefer to digest reality based upon theorems as basic as human equality and the overall incomprehensibility of the universe. The succinctness of the objection is sometimes couched in vulgar language as further evidence of the legitimacy of the claim or observation. It is an error to dismiss the challenge as uneducated simply because it amounts to a pshaw. And if the response to the expression of contempt is another baseless or imaginary conjecture then it is assured that no advance of the topic is possible.

Ceremony affords a project of thought which needn’t thrive upon anything other than image and appearance (hence the devotion to the latter).  When however adopted as an immovable mantra it can be both beguiling and deceptive.  For those unwilling to take the bait it’s a knee jerk response, “Get over it!”