Regardless of whether you celebrate Easter, Passover, or any other kind of cultural holiday you find out that there are a quite a few habits and traditions that you follow and expect to occur leading up to the holiday and on the holiday itself. For example, I am sure there are a few readers who have had chocolate rabbits for Easter, been on an egg hunt or eaten a special meal that has some sort of tradition associated with it. And I am sure that there have been many times that you have wondered about why you still follow the traditions, that is, until you get to the point that you are responsible for “hosting” a holiday or influencing the plans for a holiday. At this point, without thinking, you tend to follow what you knew and experienced… You set up the same traditional activities that you grew up with and got used to. It sticks with you because it brings meaning and purpose to how you live. Your sense of values is heightened and you keep the tradition alive in the same way that you stay committed to THPL. You do so because tradition and beliefs are at the core of who we are in a group or society and they have symbolic meaning and special significance for us - and ultimately, they make a connection with the past and provide a road-map to the future.
The issue we are facing today is that these wonderful traditions, that bring such richness and feeling to life, are becoming rare - as rare as it is that we see people pursuing THPL. The prevailing sentiment, around us, is that life is evolving and that becoming modern is a good thing. But good in this context drives us to be a convenience-based society and then I think we might be going just a bit too far. When this happens, standards are lost and forgotten and our history and what we learned from it are devalued. This is a society that is characterized by a general populous that wants to put little effort into life, where the expectation is that life is to come to the individual, and entitlement drives expectations.
We have written countless times about the attributes of THPL – we understand it and seek it out – and the deeper you get into it the more you realize that THPL is in stark contrast to a convenience-based society. THPL and traditions – they take time and care, they are done without regard for the effort required and little compromise is made along the way. The actions and traditions, when implemented, create intrinsic value, value that is lasting and cherished.
We need to fight the loss of tradition that happens because of cultural assimilation or marginalization. Tradition-oriented societies have been characterized as valuing harmony and group welfare, stability, and interdependence. I would offer that THPL is characterized in just the same way. On a day such as today when you have the opportunity to follow tradition, to do things that require more effort, that take care and attention – stay the course – it will benefit you and others around you. Let us not lose our motivation for THPL and let’s make sure that we create, along the way, a few new traditions that bring all of this THPL stuff to life for now and forever more. We will all be better served for having done so.
Loving life that is full of traditions
This Sally tradition is doing just fine - 3:26 +25 seconds and you add in 227 pushups for the 4:17 song and you have a very good justification for eating all of that great food today.
Ciao
Joe