The Code of Enlightenment
The Rite of Setting Down
Work does not end when it is finished. It ends when someone says it has ended, out loud, in the presence of at least themselves.
- Reference
- CoE-0014
- Category
- ritual
- Version
- 1.0
This rite is for the end of a period of work: a day, a project, a release, a term of service. It may be spoken alone at a desk, or by a group at the close of a shared effort.
It takes about three minutes. It should not be lengthened. Its usefulness is in being short enough to actually be done.
Where a group performs it, one person may take the lines marked Convener; all others answer All. Where a person performs it alone, they speak both parts, aloud if possible.
The Setting Down
The work is closed. Screens are turned away or shut. Hands are placed flat on the surface.
Convener: The work is set down.
All: It is set down.
Convener: Not finished. Set down.
All: It is set down.
A pause of one breath.
The Naming
Each person present says one plain sentence describing what they made. Not its value. Not its difficulty. What it is.
If nothing was made, they say: “Nothing was made today, and the day was spent.” This is a permitted answer and should not be commented on.
Where a person works alone, they say the sentence aloud regardless.
The Reckoning
Convener: What we made will be used.
All: By people we will not meet.
Convener: It will be used as it is, not as we intended it.
All: As it is, not as we intended.
Convener: Let us name one person it will reach.
Each person names a category of person — not an individual by name, unless the work was for one individual. “Someone applying for housing.” “A colleague who inherits this in two years.” “Whoever reads this when they are frightened.”
The naming is not discussed.
The Admission
Convener: Something in this work is wrong, and we do not yet know what.
All: We do not yet know what.
Convener: When we find it, we will say where we found it.
All: We will say where.
The Release
Convener: What is finished is finished.
All: It is finished.
Convener: What is not finished will be here.
All: It will be here.
Convener: We are not the work.
All: We are not the work.
A pause. Longer than is comfortable — five breaths, unhurried.
Convener: Go.
Notes on use
The rite has no supernatural claim attached to it. Nothing is invoked and nothing is asked. It is a procedure for ending, in the way that a handshake is a procedure for meeting.
On the Naming. People will want to justify their work rather than describe it. The instruction to say what it is rather than what it was worth is the whole exercise, and it is harder than it sounds. Resist the urge to help someone who is struggling with it.
On the Reckoning. The purpose of naming a person the work will reach is to put a human being into the last thirty seconds of a day that may have contained none. Where the honest answer is “nobody, this reached nobody”, that should be said, and it is worth hearing.
On the Admission. Some groups find this line difficult and want to remove it. It should not be removed. A ritual that only affirms is a ritual that will eventually be used to avoid something.
On the pause before Go. It will feel too long. It is meant to. Most work ends by drift rather than by decision, and the pause is the part that makes this a decision.
On adaptation. Change the words if they do not fit your language or your setting. This is not a fixed text and nothing depends on its exact form. If you make a version that works better, we would be glad to hear of it. Nothing here is owned.
Questions to sit with
- What did I actually make today?
- Who will meet it?
- What am I still carrying that belongs to the work rather than to me?