Essay: The Metaphysics of Tradition

As someone fortunate enough to have been the Emperor of JHU, as someone who is fortunate enough to have known my predecessors and the burden they bore well, as someone who will soon advise the next year of dedicated CTYers at Baltimore, I’ve thought a lot about tradition. Here are some of my thoughts. Enjoy.

I took Human Nature and Technology my nevermore year, and one of the texts we analyzed during the first few days was Aristotle’s Metaphysics, a horrifically wordy and complex treatise on how the universe works. I’ll sum up a bit of what he says for you:

1. The universe is in a constant state of change, and that change is divided into three parts. 2. The first is the substance, or the object of change. 3. The second is the medium, the space through which substance moves. 4. The third is the cause, the impetus for change. 5. Everything is potential in this constant state of change, and substance requires a specific cause to move it through the medium into the next (actualized) state of change. This cycle repeats forever.

The more I thought about it throughout the session, the more I realized that CTY is the same. But to identify the three parts of CTY’s Metaphysics, we need to first figure out what’s being changed. I think that if you’re on RealCTY, you’d agree that the object of change is you. You don’t go through the program without changing, in one way or another, and hopefully for the better. My entire life changed - what I thought I was interested in, my perception of myself, and what it meant to me to belong somewhere. The program offers a tremendous opportunity for growth, and that’s where we get to our cause.

I really believe that the cause of change at CTY is the people. CTY may be where you meet your people, those that really understand and complement you, or it may be where you simply find some amazing friends. It’s an uniquely welcoming and spirited environment, one of unbridled weirdness and a new story every day. And as we meet our people, as they shape us with their humor and passion and love, we grow alongside them. Johns Hopkins isn’t nearly where I live, but it will forever feel like home, because I felt like I made a new family there, one that hurts to leave behind.

Here’s where we get to the point of the essay - I know a lot of people who might say that (at least part of) the cause is tradition. That what makes CTY so special is the uniqueness that comes with its repertoire of ceremonies, that even if they don’t remember anything from the program they’ll always remember American Pie. That statement is completely, utterly false.

Envision the last dance, when American Pie comes on. There is one night left of CTY. This may be your first last night, or your last last night. Envision American Pie, but in an empty room. There are no CTYers. There is the idea of a chant, still alive in your head, yet not uttered for a lack of mouths. When you run to the center, there is no pressure to be first, no jostling of bodies, no energy in the air. It is the same song, it has the same words and the same rhythm, yet none of the significance but for the memories you already possess.

Tradition is nothing without the people that give it meaning. Tradition is nothing without the love that fuels it, year after year, at sites across the country. Tradition is nothing, until passion gives it form. And thus, tradition is the medium. Experiencing them with the people you love, creating shared experience with those who give you meaning, is the only thing that gives them meaning. When I began to wear a golden crown, passed down from one before me, I thought I wore it for traditions started by people long gone. I realize now I wore it for the ones wearing the silver tiara, the bronze wreath, both the closest friends I’ve ever had. I wore it for my hallmates, for my classmates, for the people I only spoke once with and for those with whom I’d never exchanged a word. I was not maintaining something real, I was maintaining the spirit of something greater.

I like you, I love you, I CTY you. Anyone who’s reading this I know, and anyone I’ll never meet. It is you I like, it is you I love, it is you I CTY. For it is you who makes those statements mean so much to me.

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