What I Learned from Listening to Ravel’s Bolero for 14 Hours in a Row
Ah… the joys of pledging a college fraternity!
During the course of a lifetime a human being goes through many rites of passage. Birth, for example. First love. And enduring a Republican primary debate. For me, one of the most memorable rites of passage happened in college during the weekend I was initiated into a fraternity.
I realize, of course — especially during these painfully politically correct times — that college fraternities are rarely associated with anything remotely smacking of insight, awareness, or transformation. But for me it definitely was — at least on the rite of passage night I was initiated into Pi Lambda Phi — an experience now permanently etched into whatever remains of my mind.
The initiation?
To sit blindfolded in a pitch black room, next to 21 of my sweating classmates, each of us holding 17 marbles in our left hands while listening to Ravel’s Bolero for 14 hours.
That is not a misprint, folks. Fourteen hours of Bolero.
