OATH

The first thing I think of when hearing the word 'oath' is promise. However, it's not really a promise is it? People make promises all the time yet those are rarely kept. There is no real reason to keep a promise, nothing beyond the fact that you gave a friend your word. If you tend to think mostly of yourself then the likelihood that you'll care about keeping a promise that does nothing for you personally is very slim. An oath is different however, an oath will affect you directly.

Although both are intangible (we know that they are there simply because we made them not because there is an oath plaque or anything), the act of making an oath resonates with us. Thinking of marriage as an oath is really something. Whenever people talk about marriage to me (which is really never, I do not know what I am saying maybe my aunt said something to me about it a few times), they are specific to use the word 'promise.' I think this makes sense considering the way marriages seem to go these days and the fact that the divorce rate is constantly increasing. People are not looking at it as an oath, they are looking at it as a promise and "promises are meant to be broken" (That may not be a quote or a saying I cannot remember, bare with me please). Now I'm no marriage counselor, but in my opinion, people are much more nonchalant these days about marriage, overall that is. People need to understand the seriousness of marriage, that it is a sacred oath, not something you can test drive like buying a new car.

Perhaps the Greeks out there who do not take Greek Life seriously and see it as nothing more than one big party, do not understand the meaning of the oath that they take. Maybe they did not even realize they were taking an oath and it was just another day at the beach for them. I think that people need to think long and hard about what it really means to make this oath rather than just make it and run with it. We talked a lot last class about the negative stereotypes against us and how some greek members perpetuate those stereotypes. I am by no means trying to say that perpetuating those stereotypes means that you are not living up to your oath, but with things like TFM, we are really pushing unimportant, nonsensical things to the forefront of our 'image' and leaving all that we promised in our oath on the back burner. With all of this nonsense representing us and being our 'master status,' people will not see that we are living up to our oath and acknowledge that we are doing a good job even if we are. And this is because of the thick layer of nonsense under which our good deeds and oath is hidden by.