Personal Shrine Reflection- Ralston Hartness

Building my shrine, “The Guys,” really was a powerful experience. I was excited about this project, but I expected it to be a simple and straightforward endeavor. I spent some time last weekend and thought about what I wanted to make— I haven’t lost a close love one at this point in my life and I have lived a life of relative privilege and opportunity. However, this year, I have felt the importance and power of relationships in my life and their role in my position as a leader on campus and amongst my peers. Thinking about this made me realize that, over the past semester, I have been living in the loss of a few dear friends.

Every Tuesday night for the past three years, eight friends, myself included, have gotten together at 9 PM to catch up on how life is going, to share scripture and encouragement, and to pray for each other. Although some of us refer to our group as the “Elite Eight,” I have always just thought of us as “the guys”—this is what I will tell others when they ask who I am hanging out with on Tuesdays. This hour or so of each week has been a formative and encouraging time throughout my time here at W&L, and it is clear that we have developed a strong and intimate community of brotherhood within our group.

              In January, one of us, Duncan, left to study abroad in Cusco, Peru. In April, two more, Walker and Findley, left to study in Ireland for Spring Term. I always knew that we had incredible relationships, but it wasn’t until they left that I really understood that we had become one body. Our time on Tuesday nights was still encouraging and formative, but it was not the same without Duncan, and now without Walker and Findley. Hanging out at other times in the week has not been the same without these three brothers of mine—I have truly felt, in an emotional and spiritual way, their absence over the past few weeks.

              Initially, I wanted to make a shrine to them. I went and gathered supplies—some sticks to represent our love of spending time together outdoors, glue and a wooden cross, some nails. As I began to scrape the bark off of the sticks I was to use—in order to represent the intimacy and vulnerability of our relationships and conversations—I began to realize that their absence was powerful and meaningful only in the context of the body that we had become. It was this moment that shifted the entire experience for me, as the shrine was no longer simply for the three of them, but for all of the guys. Each of the guys is so important to our group in a deeply individual way, which is why I picture all of us on the cross at the heart of the shrine, yet we are only powerful and impactful to the fullest extent on campus and in each other’s lives when we are all together. This is why the group of us is so closely pasted to the cross at the center of the Chi-Rho.

              The Chi-Rho has always been a powerful symbol to me, even since before I knew what it actually symbolized. I now know that the symbol was a significant one in the early Christian church which congregations used to mark themselves as Christians throughout Rome. In this way, the Chi-Rho is a symbol of Christ, a symbol of community, and a symbol of intimacy and belief. I have also always thought that it resembled the shape of a body, with the “P” as the head and the “X” as the extremities. In this sense, the symbol is an apt one to resemble our community, the meaning and hopefulness of it, and the total interdependence of each of us on the others. Being reminded of this power and having the opportunity to create this shrine to resemble that was a truly impactful experience that will live with me beyond this course.