Traditions

In the play "Fiddler On The Roof" the old father was bound and determined to keep his family traditons intact. Some of his efforts had value and were noble. Some were just curious customs and were humorous.

Most of us are not real fond of flying out of our comfort zone. Sometimes that's noble and sometimes it's humorous. Our day to day to day activities create habits. Those habits turn into traditions. Some of those tradtions at our house have included breakfast and haircuts, Mondays and grandkids, and Saturday night pizza. We also get used to shopping at the same stores, driving our favorite brand of vehicles, and interacting with our circle of family and friends. All of these things are good. We become comfortable and efficiant at what we do and who we do it with.

However what about that neighbor working across the fence? What about those folks down the road we don't know very well? Sometimes in our circle of tradition at getting things done we tend to become to busy to reach out or miss an opportunity to be a friend.

Whether intentional or not we pass our tradions on to our children more by our example than by our instruction. They in turn will pass what they believe is important on to their children. Some of those traditions are just curious customs. Some are faithful responses to what and who we value.

A wise man once told me, "Don't measure the success of a generation of parents by their kids. Measure their success by their grandkids". Are we by example teaching our kids to teach their kids the traditions we value.