Ritual
"I have always said that academic pomp is corn and I have always taken
it with tongue in cheek. Whenever people are in academic processions they
always seem to waddle rather than walk directly forward. The result is
that these processions always take much more time than they need to, all
to the seemingly endless repetitions of 'Pomp and Circumstance.' In an
effort to hurry up the enfilade, I had our bagpipe band play a lively march
and, by Jove, it cut down the time for commencement processions almost twenty
minutes. The marching affected not only the faculty, but some five thousand
graduates."
"Some of the young people today have taken a stand against pomp and
bourgeois ceremony. In doing so they want to substitute simple and uncluttered
meetings. I think they make a mistake. Life has to have color, ceremony,
ritual -- provided that you don't become too stuffy about it."