(image credit: Daniel Tutt)
Lately, it seems everywhere I look, people are announcing their year-of-publishing roundup lists, posting nominations for best-of prizes, and celebrating their year of success. It’s natural to want to look back this time of year, to learn from mistakes and check off goals, to mark off one stage and prepare for the next.
‘Tis the season of liminality, a term anthropologist Victor Turner used to describe the disorienting in-between. Many—going back to the Romans—believe that Saturnalia (a celebration of the sun god Saturn), which took place between the solstice and the lunar new year, was such a time. During this festival of light, Roman hierarchies reversed: kings became servants, jokers became wisemen, etc. When Saturnalia ended, the normal hierarchy was reinstated, citizens having learned the importance of structure, the chaos of misrule frightening, confusing, and exhausting.
When Christians incorporated Christmas into the Saturnalia season, the Twelve Days of Christmas (period between the birth of Christ and the coming of the Magi) became that liminality, the Gregorian new year still marking the point at which we begin to reintegrate structured norms. Thus, New Year’s resolutions.
(Many of our Christmas traditions and rituals were born from the integration of the two religious celebrations, the symbols of which you can read about here.)
While Saturnalia’s purpose was to turn the world on its head, to see one’s life from a different perspective and thus gain the wisdom to appreciate the normal order of things (think of it as doing a handstand and coming back down the way you went up), some of Turner’s successors claim liminal space is not static, but rather allows movement from a low position to a higher one (doing a front walkover, so to speak). Brian Sutton-Smith states, “The normative structure represents the working equilibrium, the antistructure [e.g., liminality] represents the latent system of potential alternatives…it is the precursor of innovative normative forms. It is the source of new culture.” Here, the liminal space during a rite of passage is not merely removing oneself from one expected role (childhood, for example) and diving into another (adulthood), but an opportunity to learn from chaotic play, to reinvent self, looking forward.
In other words, Sutton-Smith’s theory suggests that some souls, having tasted another’s life during Saturnalia, didn’t quite ever go back, at least not mentally.
In a recent sit down with Willie Geist, actor, model, author, and entrepreneur Brooke Shields (a lifetime ‘hustler,’ as Willie dubbed her) suggested she does not fall into each expected socially normative stage as she ages. Rather, she understands the liminal space between decades as opportunities to move up on the proverbial ladder. “I feel stronger,” she said. “I feel sexier [in my fifties]…Why can’t we be celebrated for what our next chapter is?...I’m not done.” Shields’ attitude makes her aging subversive: as she becomes what society might deem a crone (during which she is expected to disappear, retire, shrink into oblivion), she instead becomes more present, more successful, more seen. In other words, she fights the establishment.
It seems, then, one must simply alter her state-of-mind to accomplish what Shields has. Though, it’s not that simple. Breaking stereotypes—those social norms—requires battling expectations at every turn. It means having a strong core, being comfortable living on the outside, knowing you are different, not relating to most people in your supposed stage. That is why we laud such individuals. In literature, we call them heroes. Each wrung in a social hierarchy represents an almost insurmountable obstacle to overcome.
That interview with Shields got me wondering what this passing liminal season might bring, if next year will be any different than the last. Will we as social beings fall into our expected roles, carrying on the status quo, or we will use this time to create change, stepping forward instead of landing where gravity wants to pull us down? Maybe we shouldn’t wait and see. Maybe we should start moving now.
On the subject of year-end lists, visit my blog to read about my favorite books from 2021. And, if you’d like to read my recent Pushcart-nominated story, you can here.
Merry Liminality
So great to read, especially as I try to (ritualize) my way into new circles of people who share my traits. It’s relieving to think I’m existing in a liminal state of innovative play, a nursery for new culture (instead of simply being rejected for not representing “normality”). Love the background on Saturnalia! News to me and fits my recent curiosities.
BRILLIANT. I am all about the liminal. Elbowroom for possibility.
And congratulations on your Pushcart nomination! Great story – I love the humor and physicality, the near slapstick, of that dramatic moment.