Traditions

I watched the Macy’s Parade on Thanksgiving. It is a long-standing tradition going back as far as I can remember. For me, the tradition includes getting the pumpkin pie into the oven just as the Rockettes do their number (ushering in the start of the Parade) and sitting with family kibitzing about who the singers are, how well they lip-sync, what balloon is losing air, will Bob McGrath still be on the Sesame Street Float this year (sadly, no), how cold the marching band members from some warm state are (I have noticed the band from Hawaii never returned). While I keep this tradition going, it isn’t quite the same anymore, now that my family is far-flung and isn’t ‘home for the holidays’. This year, I ended up kibitzing via text to my daughter who was at work and only responded during her break.

Shop Local Saturday is our newest tradition, which finds us visiting a number of local businesses. One in particular we look forward to since it is a great little shop filled with just the right gifts for family and friends. So we set out with enthusiasm, only to discover it had moved to a larger site and is now much expanded (very nice location). We wandered around like lost souls, this year walking out with nothing, missing the intimacy and selection of the prior location.
Finishing off the weekend was a holiday film about giving up old traditions and moving on to new experiences. It seemed like I was being told something at this point!

I was surprised to be reminded how important traditions are to me, considering how I love and embrace change (have you been to the library recently?). But traditions do give you a sense of stability and surety in a world that seems to be radically different almost every day. It binds people together with a shared experience that everyone knows and fits back into comfortably and comfortingly. The risk arises when tradition prevents positive progress, when the tradition continues to lumber on having long outlasted its function and prevents the development of new traditions.

Libraries are often tagged with the traditional label – too often in a negative sense. But in reality, libraries just do the shift to new traditions well, building on what works and easing away what no longer is the best solution today. Sure, there are always changes that seem jarring – and these are the ones that strike closest to your comfort zone – but that passes as well. Libraries are thought of as being traditional places, but if you sit and consider the library of your childhood and today’s library, you will be startled be the differences that have eased in while keeping the sense of comforting traditions.

Movie: Fiddler on the Roof
Book: The Book of New Family Traditions: How to Create Great Rituals for Holidays and Everyday, by Cox, Meg.