Is Your Daily Wordle a Ritual?
No one would question that your daily journaling or morning devotional is a ritual. But is Wordle a ritual?
If you don’t know, Wordle is a popular app word game that has one puzzle per day. The objective is to guess a 5-letter word using feedback the game gives you based on your previous guesses. It’s fun, addictive – and can be very frustrating. Feel free to substitute any sort of addictive, phone-based game: Candy Crush, Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds, (Tetris, if you’re old like me) or even your classic, newspaper-based favorites like a crossword, sudoku, or jumble. The point is: Is a daily distraction you do with your morning coffee a ritual?
Consider Ryan: He has gotten in the habit of completing his daily Wordle as he eats his breakfast. He likes the idea of doing something each day that challenges his brain. He shares his successes and frustrations on Twitter. When you ask him about it, he says it’s just a game. But if you dig a bit deeper, you can glimpse something more. Ryan’s mother and grandmother died from Alzheimer’s disease. He watched both of them decline – it’s not something he likes to talk about, but he wouldn’t wish it on his most hated enemy. He’s aware of the genetic risks and it worries him. He knows the research on doing crossword puzzles and other mental challenges is more complicated than the news headlines would suggest, and he feels helpless about what to do. But his daily Wordle is something that he has control over. At least he’s doing something.
Jessica only shares her Wordle results with her father. The daily routine never varies. Both have completed the Wordle by 8am and they text the results to each other – and not a minute before! We don’t want to give away any clues that could offer the other an unfair advantage. When she was a teenager, Jessica and her father fought constantly. It helped when she moved out, but they live in different worlds. Her father fits the stereotype of “traditional businessman” – work hard, follow the rules, make money. Jessica is an artist and free spirit. They cannot talk about religion or politics without regretting it later. But Wordle is a daily point of connection with her father. After sharing their scores, there’s often a few quick text messages: “Have a good day” “Enjoy the weather today” “We’ll see you on Saturday”.
To the outside observer, completing a Wordle may seem like a mindless habit. But if you took Wordle away from Ryan or Jessica, each would feel its absence. Ryan uses Wordle as a Ritual of Renewal – it provides a sense of revitalization and self-improvement. Jessica uses Wordle as a Ritual of Connection – it provides an amicable way for her to be connected with her father. On the surface, both Ryan and Jessica are doing the same thing – completing a Wordle. But a ritual is not evaluated based on what is visible to others. It is based on what it means to the person performing the ritual.
So the short answer is “yes”. Wordle can definitely be a ritual. We all have small, private actions that may seem like senseless habits or time wasters – and sometimes they are. But I define ritual as a meaningful action with symbolic intent and sometimes these little habits play a larger role in our lives than we might suspect. Under the guise of being more productive or efficient, we must be careful not to weed out the small actions that provide tremendous meaning.
What small, daily habits do you have that may look like a time-waster to an outside observer, but means something more to you?