Tradition

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse. - Winston Churchill

I associate many words with the word "ritual" including custom, convention, habit, institution, observance, belief, folklore - and tradition. What is common is all these words is a handing down from one generation to the next. These behaviors, mores and customs link an individual to a lineage, to all those who have come before them.

But what I've been thinking about since our last rehearsal is the tension that Churchill alludes to: i.e., between embracing what has been passed down to us and the breaking with convention. Isn't this the question that the Islamic community is currently struggling with?

Howard Gardner, the educational guru, recently spoke in an educational journal about the importance of Jean Piaget's work. Gardner now sees that he has spent much of his career paying tribute to the seminal ideas of Piaget. Gardner says that without having Piaget as a mentor he would never have gone on to develop his own innovative ideas (e.g., multiple intelligences). But Gardner also acknowledges that he broke away from Piaget in order to go about developing these ideas.

My mother is Puerto Rican an my father is Irish. Growing up in P.R., Thanksgiving was not as significant a holiday as it is in the mainland United States. My father's family strictly abided by the traditional American Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie, etc. Led by the matriarch of my family, my grandmother (a first generation American) this menu represented her affilation with this country. She was not Irish - she had fled oppression in that country - she was Irish-American, with a strong emphasis on the word on the right side of the hyphen. So, when my mother began, over the years, to introduce traditional Puerto Rican food to the traditional meal, it caused quite a stir. Arroz con pollo, pasteles, bunuelos (yam fritters), and the after-dinner drink coquito (an eggnog-like rum concoction) were seen as upsetting an important tradition. My mother was, in her own way, honoring tradition. Where she came from, these were the foods that were eatten during special holidays. But the implication of these foods could not be missed: are the traditions of an olive-skinned Puerto Rican citizen of equal value to those of a white-skinned "Americans?"

Tradition can be deadly and oppressive. Take California's Proposition 8 - an amendment to the constitution of the state that would eliminate same-sex couple's right to marry. One side says: there is, after all, a tradition to uphold; and we have the right to define what marriage is. The other side argues that marriage is a basic civil right. Prop 8 is a blatant example of bigotry, discrimination and the treating of same-sex couples as second citizens. Who says that marriage only applies to heterosexual couples?!

I'll end with a verse from Fiddler on the Roof. This is a play which explores this tension between what has been established and a questioning of such tradition. In the song, Tradition, sung at the top of the show, the community defines the traditional roles of men and women in society.

[Tevye & Papas]
Who, day and night, must scramble for a living, Feed a wife and children, say his daily prayers? And who has the right, as master of the house, To have the final word at home? The Papa, the Papa! Tradition. The Papa, the Papa! Tradition.

[Golde and Mamas]
Who must know the way to make a proper home, A quiet home, a kosher home? Who must raise the family and run the home, So Papa's free to read the holy books? The Mama, the Mama! Tradition. The Mama, the Mama! Tradition.