The Ritual

No, not that ritual. My life. I ritualize my life to the greatest degree possible. It’s a control thing, keeping control. Over the course of a day, it can’t be done, unless you’re some kind of hermit, but of a morning I manage.

Living alone helps. My morning ritual is complete. I try to leave myself a couple of hours between waking and entering the outside world, and during that time my actions are virtually identical everyday. The same actions, in the same sequence, the same breakfast, the same products, exactly, and in the same order. The content of the web changes from day to day, but I check the same websites in the same order: Huffington Post; my blog; my e-mail; You Are Dumb dot net; the New York Times; The Nation (an English language BKK daily); Accuweather BKK; then back to Huffington Post to watch some clips of comedy or news. Then an evacuation, a shower, maybe a shave, and get dressed and go.

It’s all very comforting. It helps me get ready for the complete loss of control that we call the world-at-large.