My Morning Ritual

                Each morning my alarm clock rings at 5:20 am. I groggily wake up, check my phone and get out of bed. The next step in my morning ritual is to make a fruit salad, after all I want to maintain a nice figure. After eating it's off to the bathroom for the most important part: putting on my face for the day. Foundation, concealer, highlight, blush, eye shadow, eyeliner, mascara, chapstick. I have to cover every little imperfection, lest someone see the real me. Once my face is made, I have to deal with an even bigger challenge: my hair. Fifteen minutes later and my uncontrollable hair is burned pin-straight. Last but certainly not least is my outfit, after all, all eyes are on me right? Now I'm ready to face my friends.

                Wow, I never realized how ridiculous my morning routine, or ritual if you will, truly is. However, Horace Miner reveals just how narcissistic Americans are. Miner writes, "The focus of this [ritual activity] is the human body, the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern in the ethos of the people." When I initially read this I completely disagreed, until I took a moment to reflect on my morning ritual. After thinking about it I realized that the majority of my morning is devoted to trying to make myself look different, to make myself look better. Miner really calls to attention an issue that never occurred to me before: why do we go through this ridiculous, extensive ritual each day? Maybe because our appearance contributes to our ethos. In our society the ones who receive the most attention are the ones who appear the most attractive, the most put together. After all, we all follow this ritualistic mindset. As far as we are concerned, the way we look is what is most important. Most cultures would call this narcissistic, or at the very least self-centered, but for us that's just being an American.