Today is Muster...

[AggieDave 6]

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On April 21st each year, on the anniversary of the battle of San Jacinto, Aggies gather together, wherever they are, to commemorate fellow Aggies who have died during the year. The tradition was begun 21 April, 1903.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of what is likely the most revered of Aggie traditions: Muster. Hours from now, as many people as can be squeezed into Reed Arena will witness the most somber ceremony some will ever see. In fact, not many people have ever seen it’s equal.

There are no refreshments.

There is no local acoustic band to provide light music.

There are no distractions.

There are no tickets.

There is only silence, broken by names, and three volleys of seven, fired in time to the slow cadence of measured breathing. The lights are dim, and candlelight provides fitful illumination such that ghosts seem to flicker just out of the corner of your eye. Just on the edge of your senses, you can imagine that thousands—maybe hundreds of thousands—of souls peek in on that silent structure, just as reverent as those of us whose names have not yet been called. Their whispery passage is also measured, reminding us of twenty-one white-clad figures whose sudden tributes to the past shatter the otherwise deafening silence. Perhaps arms will be joined, perhaps a soft acapella rendition of "Amazing Grace" will once again break that blanketing post-volley cessation of sound. Generations will be bridged; great grandfathers will lock arms with great-granddaughters in an infinite circle of likeness that will encompass every age, every culture. The lights on the campus will be extinguished same as the lights inside the arena, in essence taking one college campus out of the nighttime visual radar of space. A hush will follow the masses out, same as it followed them in a short time before. Worldwide, similar observances of silence will be held. In the Middle East, soldiers bearing the common bond of an inscription-laden gold ring will converge on one another to pay silent respects to those that have gone before, and pray for their continued absence from future readings. It is a spectacle that stretches across continents, across time itself; it is a spectacle without equal at any institution anywhere. It is our Tradition. It is our time of reflection. It is our time, no matter our differences, to simply be Aggies.

Not everyone will choose to participate in this culmination what we hold most sacred, but many will. Some may even wonder why we do such a thing. The past is better left there, they say. Bringing up old sorrows only serves to drag us all down. But who are we if we do not remember those who came and went before us? Who are we if we do not give silent acknowledgement to the gifts, accomplishments, and deeds done by those whose bodies have long since been returned to the earth from which they were born? Without a reminder of those otherwise long forgotten, we become a culture bereft of it’s past. A culture isolated in time for all time. Those who do not wish to participate are in no way obligated to do so; forcing participation makes us no better than a plurality of tyrants whose only aim is complete conformity. To those that wish to abstain, however, please do not forget what the rest of us choose to participate in. This is not a day for revelry, nor is it a day for frivolity. What we do today is serious, and making light of it will not bring about reactions anything short of enmity. What we do today is mark the passage and the maturation of something 100 years strong, and it will only grow stronger with the passage of time. Let us have our time now, and we will surely let you indulge in yours in times to come.

One-hundred years.

One night.

One family.

One voice.

One spirit.

An eternity of collective memory.



--Softly call the Muster,

Let comrade answer "here"

Here.



(if anyone is wondering what the hell Muster is, then go here: http://muster.tamu.edu/tradition/ It is the most sacred of Aggie Traditions).

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."