Tradition.
Some treasure it. Yet often without questioning why.
Perhaps one of the best fables exemplifying this:
I have a friend whose wife had a family recipe for Christmas ham which involved cutting the ham in half lengthwise (parallel to the bone) and then putting the two halves in a shallow roasting pan. One Christmas eve a few years ago, he was in the kitchen watching his wife cut the ham. "Honey, I've been meaning to ask: why do you go to the trouble of cutting the ham lengthwise that way?"
Her reply was interesting: "I don't know. I got the recipe from my mother, and we've always done it that way. She's coming for dinner tomorrow, so if you really want to know, why don't you just ask her?"
Now, my friend is a stubborn type, so the next day, as the family was sitting down to Christmas dinner, he asked his mother-in-law: "By the way, you know the recipe for Christmas ham? Why do you go to the trouble of cutting it lengthwise that way?"
To which his mother-in-law replied: "You know, I'm not really sure. I got the recipe from my mother, and we've always done it that way. If you're interested, we're going to the nursing home to visit her later today; why don't you just ask her then?"
Later that day, they did go to the nursing home to visit his wife's grandmother, who was in her late eighties and recuperating from a broken hip (suffered while skiing!). When the familiy gossip slowed down, my friend asked his inevitable question: "Grandma, you know the recipe for Christmas ham? Why do you go to the trouble of cutting it lengthwise that way?"
His wife's grandmother (who apparently didn't have a very high opinion of my friend's intelligence), fixed him with a withering gaze and said: "Well, back in the 'thirties, when I first came up with that recipe, we were too poor to afford a big roasting pan, and we had to cut the ham in half in order to make it fit into the pan we did have."
Sixty years later, her grand-daughter was still going the trouble of cutting the ham in half lengthwise ". . . because we've always done it that way!"
~ source
How many little and large things do we do, simply because 'that's the way we've always done it?
Whether familial or cultural, how much of our worlds are shaped by traditions rooted in reasons for doing, thinking, relating, and behaving in ways that really aren't so relevant in this day and age?
Probably alot.
How many crises in our personal lives and collective society are the result of holding onto traditions that have outlived their purpose?
What solutions to some of our greatest problems have we failed to implement simply because we've valued tradition over progress?
What will it take to abandon traditions whose purpose have been served, in favor of cultural revolutions?