Tradition

“I like change better when everything stays the same!” So says, I believe, Archie Bunker in an episode of All In The Family. I and many others can certainly relate to Archie as he struggled to catch up with the times, while desperately wishing to maintain some semblance of tradition and what he would consider normalcy in his life.
“Fiddler On The Roof” has tradition as a main theme. Churches are steeped in tradition, as is government, the educational system, the military, and many other organizations. Tradition even rises to the stature of law or rule in the minds of many, even though nothing of that particular tradition was ever codified.
We attended a Kansas University football game yesterday. It’s not the first time I’ve been to a KU game, and KU isn’t the only college game I’ve attended. I’m not so much of a sports nut, though, as I am a student of people. I like to watch, as many do, the traditions that accompany a sporting event on a university campus. The release of the falcon at Air Force Academy games, the appearance of the KU band out of the stadium entrances, and many other traditions you can think of which are attached to such events are as much a part of the experience as the game itself.
I was thinking yesterday as I watched some of the tradition play out for the millionth time how even in this day when we have instant access to virtually anything via smart phones and the Internet, some things just don’t change. And if someone were to try to change some tradition at a college sporting event, I dare say the earth itself would move to swallow up the one trying to make that change.
Much as we like to think we’re progressive and open, there is a gene within us that longs for the familiar and the traditional. There is a longing within us for the time-honored and customary. There are some venues into which innovation, novelty, and improvement just aren’t invited.
And that’s OK.