Are Family Traditions Worth It ?
One Sunday, I was sitting with a few friends at a café. We were drinking coffee, talking nonsense, laughing at things that probably wouldn't have been funny to anyone outside our little group. In other words, it was a perfectly good Sunday. Then, quite suddenly, Janet looked at her watch. “I've got to go.” I tried to persuade her to stay a little longer. She couldn't. She had a commitment. She said that the last Sunday of every month at 6 p.m., Janet’s family has a tradition of getting on a call, where the extended family joins in as well. No special occasion. Whoever can join, joins. They talk about what's happening in their lives. They tease one another. They catch up. Sometimes the conversation probably goes nowhere. And that's precisely the point. It happens. Every month. Walking home, I found myself thinking about it. I liked the idea more than I expected. Because families have a strange way of changing as we get older. Children grow up. Parents become grandparents. Brothers and sisters move to different cities. Cousins get married. People become busy. Someone says something that shouldn't have been said. Someone else doesn't call. A disagreement becomes a silence. And then the silence becomes a habit. Nobody necessarily decides to stop being close. Life simply gets in the way. Which is why I think traditions may be more important than we give them credit for. A family tradition is, in many ways, a little piece of glue. It doesn't have to be impressive. The same vacation every summer. Or, apparently, getting on a family video call every Sunday at six. The activity isn't really the important part. The repetition is. Because every time a tradition happens, something quietly gets reinforced: We still do this. We haven't lost each other. That may sound insignificant. But perhaps that's how relationships survive. Not through one grand gesture, but through hundreds of small reminders that say, without actually saying it: We belong to one another. We like knowing that something will happen again. And perhaps most importantly, we like knowing that there is a place where we still belong. There is an old expression: “Blood is thicker than water.” I've always thought there was a little more to it. Blood may make us family. Tradition gives us opportunities to behave like one. Because when trouble comes. We need people who know us. People who will pick up the phone. And those relationships don't maintain themselves. They need little bridges. Traditions are some of the simplest bridges we have. Which family tradition of yours is a favourite and Why? Until tomorrow, Bob
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