This is a funny, personal response to the discussion board not the Formal Tradition Blog

I wrote out such a great response to the questions from the discussion board and then realized that I had made it too personal. I started to delete some of the personal comments and then decided that a mind (and a good joke) are terrible things to waste. If I remember correctly, the instructors said that this is our blog to post in addition to our assignments as we choose, so I decided thaqt I would post my full answers here so if someone wants to read them, they can and my time will not have been a total waste.
Enjoy your weekend!

I believe that traditions are absolutely a guiding influence. I also absolutely
believe that they are limiting. I think about some of the family traditions
when I was a young child (about 100 years ago) most of them based on the family
religion - Catholicism. I didn't mind the formality of the Catholic church. For
me, it truly become a spiritual matter. I think that the tradition of
Catholicism was a guiding influence to my spirituality although it was
extremely limiting. Becoming a Christian was my own little rebellion, the
interesting part was, that my dad responded well and didn't take it as a
personal rejection of his faith. I absolutely laughed outloud as I read
Garrison Keillor's, A Wobegon Holiday Dinner. The way that the writer made light of his
family's faith, The Sanctified Bretheren, and his Uncle Carl praying at
the dinner table. I hope that we all can enjoy the faith of our families as he
did. In reading,"Scripture said, "Pray without ceasing," and he
almost succeeded." (116), I found myself thinking of the family
member that would be voted "least likely to asked to pray over a
Thanksgiving meal" and it made me laugh even harder. I have found that
although I didn't "embrace" Catholicism, I do respect it and in my father's
mind, rebelled against it.

I think that we should question everything, as not to be like sheep, led to the
slaughter. As an adult, including as a student at EvCC, I find myself saying,
"I'm not a sheep, I'm not a sheep!". I want to know why, I need to understand.
For me things need to be logical. How funny that as a Christian, I don't
question my Creator. I do however question my instructors :D. I think that we
get caught up in doing things the same old way because it is just easier and we
hate change. There are easier and better ways to do things these days, but it
absolutely takes away from the beauty, pomp and circumstance that traditions
provide.

I don't think that I can answer what should take precedence. I know that our
identity is vital to a clear sense of who we are and what we want to be. I also
believe that our culture and traditions shouldn't be lost to the value of
identity. I am drawn to Sarita James' essay, Let Me Find My Own Husband,
"I couldn't let my parents arrange my
Indian marriage from Indiana. I would have to find my own suitable boy. Or
perhaps even an unsuitable boy." I wouldn't want to go so far as to
arrange my children's marriages, but I sure would like some input. I have
always told my children not to bring home a possible spouse without their
degree in hand - both of them. My two oldest children complied, and it hasn't
made their lives perfect or even easy. I think that my 21 year old daughter is
planning to "buck my system" though. We struggle with a young man
that has been out of high school for years and hasn't been consistantly
enrolled in college or employed. He has now come to us and explained that he is
now enrolled in college  and has a plan and our sweet daughter is
continuously working to finish her degree. I see "posturing" for our
daughter's hand taking place.............

"Shun" is a very strong word, like rebellion. I am far less concerned about the
shunning of traditions that I am the thought of shunning each other as
people. We need to love on each other at all cost. We don't even have to
like the rebellion, but we have got to love each other. We are all we
have. If this "boy" decided to take my daughter off to marry her
(notice it's all his fault), without a conversation with her father or myself we
would not be happy, we would be dissappointed, but we would not shun either of
them. Then, we would show the boy where Jimmy Hoffa is! ...just kidding...

Our society is definitly becoming more accepting of transgressions and non-
conforming behavior; much to societies detriment. We see how we were being
conditioned to be desensatized to the sex , language and violence that we never
expected to see on television.

To my young classmates, this is to remind you of a tradition you should always
hold dear, your mother is always right. (tongue in cheek)