Bigger than Ben Hur

To my way of thinking, traditions/rituals define an important social component of our lives that I think is fast becoming lost in the Western world and I find that sad actually. I feel they’ve been shelved because of the adverse attention that’s been given to them from a historical context rather than on their own merits in a person’s life.

I feel that political correctness in almost all areas of our lives and society is beginning to achieve a sanitation of all things colourful to the point of making all things bland. Nothing wrong with that I suppose if you like bland, but I don’t.

Traditions/rituals aren’t necessarily for everyone but if, like me, you decide that there are some that you’d like to have, I say why not? For instance, Saturday mornings are not quite Saturday mornings without long pawings over the weekend papers, good coffee, a croissant and no other distractions.

You see traditions/rituals don’t have to have to be bigger than Ben Hur. On the contrary. They can be simple. And what about family activities together, that’s a tradition/ritual. Maybe you don’t think of it like that but actually your actions give you away. Maybe you walk together, eat together or simply hang out together, when you do these things on a regular basis you are creating for yourself a tradition/ritual without all the pomp and ceremony as we know it.

And maybe that’s also the reason people have had rather adverse reactions to them because they’ve felt it was all a bit too much fuss and bother and who could blame them really. I rather like that every Sunday morning could be a tradition/ritual pancake day (instead of having to wait for an entire year to pass before you can celebrate Shrove Tuesday Pancake Day) heralding the start of fasting period during Lent. I’m being simple-minded but you get my drift right?

I have my tradition/rituals and it always surprises me how easy it is to have them because they’re actually a very natural part of our lives when we really think about it. They’re different from habits in that respect and I guess that’s why we enjoy the role they play in our lives. It’s an involuntary response to things lovely in our lives. I’m all for loveliness if you haven’t already guessed.