Traditions, most all families have such.
In and of themselves, traditions are neither good nor bad; they are just “how things are done.” If taken too far, they can cause problems and hurt feelings. Sometimes there are traditions that have run their course or become outdated and no longer needed, and some need to be broken or done away with completely.
In Biblical times there was a tradition that when a new king conquered a territory the first thing he would often do is have all members of the previous king’s family killed. Not good if your team loses. In earlier times the father of Jewish families selected the mate for his son, and the son and his father planned the wedding. Today one of the least important guys in a wedding is the father of the groom, with the exception of using his credit card.
Breaking with traditions can often be difficult, and often the ones who break the tradition catches a lot of flack. If you have any church background or experiences with tradition, nothing more needs to be said. While traditions may be good, they should never be set in stone or taken as law.
Personally, I learned about six weeks into our marriage about a tradition in my family that was about to be broken. Growing up my mother was the first one up (and early) each morning. First she headed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast; the coffee was ready and the Terre Haute Star paper was on the table. Ok men, now come to the table.
We had not been married very long when I began to notice there was no early morning smell of bacon and eggs coming from the kitchen. The coffee, That Maxwell House, “That good to the last drop,” was not dropping because it hadn’t started perking yet.
One morning as I rolled over in bed and looked at my wife, I noticed she was not hopping up, nor had that been her pattern for the past few weeks. I did catch her with one eye about half open and I uttered the classic line… “My mother always got up and fixed my dad breakfast.” She then opened both eyes and said without hesitation, “You didn’t marry your mother.”
With that exchange we broke with an old Adamson tradition and a new one began. You know traditions do not have to be chiseled in stone.
How about you? Got any traditions that possibly have past their time?
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March 17, 2009
Keep on,
Larry Adamson