“In pre-modern societies, a person’s identity was forged almost entirely in relation to his or her tribe. As a member of the tribe, your ‘journey’ was well-defined through rituals of birth, coming-of-age, marriage, the making of war and peace, and death. Your ‘journey’ was not your own, but one that your ancestors had taken before you…. In the modern world since the 18th century, the ties between individuals and communities have largely been severed. As a result, the sense of life as a journey has come unmoored.”
(Priest Richard Rene, asna.ca archive article)