In which we try to find the significance of traditions in contrast to rituals and habits, and what they mean to us individually and communally.
Recorded September 25, 2024.
Show notes and links:
Into the Wild (2007), story of Christopher McCandless
Rituals have been crucial for humans throughout history – and we still need them
Top Gun (1986) “Communicating. Keeping up foreign relations.”
Fiddler on the Roof (1971) “Tradition!”
Transcript:
Jump to end
right I’m thinking tradition is something
that you intentionally are doing like you’re deciding to keep up a tradition it doesn’t just
happen unless it’s unless it’s a habit for you and and also a bunch of other people
at the same time like you could have a tradition of brushing your teeth together
with your family every night and that comes as a collection from the collection of
habits that each of you and your family have already of brushing your teeth at night
if you do it together then it’s a tradition not a habit and so but you’re deciding to do
that you can accidentally not do it but you can’t I mean you can accidentally do it but
it’s not a tradition if you accidentally do it you are listening to our podcast do you have a
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join us as we explore the unknown together we are discussing um uh rituals and traditions
yeah like is that what else other names other like routin habits routines habit I mean
kind of so traditions and rituals aren’t as I mean they are they can be all right what am
I trying to get at I think there’s a difference of personal personal or communal okay tier one
and tier two and tier three right and you call it something different based on which tier in on
on what on What it references so let’s just start with with that a a a ritual a ritual is usually
AIG religious type idea so a religion will hold rituals they’ll have certain things that they do
and is that the definition of ritual what’s the ritual definition it is uh I have it there in a
click a religious or solemn ceremony consisting with a series of actions performed according to a
prescribed order for it religious or solemn then ritual yeah either religious or solemn so a solemn
thing would be the swearing in of a new president for the country a ceremony or even swearing in of
any new judge in their in their responsibilities okay something of solemn circumstance or I guess
you’d do that with introducing a new CEO to a company or reinstalling the new officers in an in
a in a group that’s a solemn ceremony that has the a ritual to it sometimes yes passing of the Gabel
yes to the next leader um so the word tradition is sometimes used with religion as well like uh
a Jewish tradition well I mean that’s a culture though tradition is is made be a culture word well
I don’t know because you have Temple attendance is a tradition of LDS but also the Jewish fa so it
it it is traditions and their checking boxes so the the issue when Christ was was on the Earth
was they were all based on their Traditions um heavier and Fiddler on the Roof Tradition is the
most important thing to the to the Jewish Nation right during the turn of the century or turn of
the times um and Christ supposedly apparently said tradition isn’t the most important thing
there’s more important things than just checking the boxes of your tradition so you can get
stuck in Traditions by thinking the box has to be checked just this way every time and your
rituals the ritual has to be exactly this way and you have to wash the dish right after it was used
as opposed to leaving it on the counter for a day all right well and and the the more you get stuck
in a tradition or a ritual the more obsessive compulsive disorder you have that’s on the I think
that’s on the spectrum of ritual um stuckness I guess stuckness stuckness yeah um so obsessive
compulsive if you’re obsessed by the ritual that’s the definition of obsessive compulsive I
guess you’re compelled to do this tradition and this ritual this way only way it can be done black
and white thinking there there’s no other way to do it so yeah and that’s your obsession and your
compulsion to do something in specific order yeah so the other side of that is to be able to think
at any time that you know I’m doing this tradition because I want to but I’m not obliged to do it
obligated if I don’t if I don’t wash the dish immediately it’s not going to hurt the tradition
that I just not what participated in right um yeah and they a a life with no tradition or ritual that
would be like the far end of of that right I mean you were saying you were saying uh what what you
were just saying yeah describing was was one side of it but I think you could go even further and
have no tradition or ritual or um routine and and be flying by the seat of your pants and and
feel I think well maybe some people like that they live best that way but to me that feels frantic
and like I’m not getting anything done ever and there’s no meaning rituals and traditions maybe
offer meaning offers meaning can you have success if you don’t have a ritual that you’re following
or a tradition um the other word that comes to mind is laws you don’t have laws um or goals the
goal of operating a tradition yeah it’s just so you’re you’re lost if you lost if you don’t see a
black or white or a goal or a tradition to adhere to Something to Believe In um I recently heard a
gentleman talk about that he says he says he was uh doesn’t think in black or white if you ask
him a question about what what someone thinks he was relating first to uh philosophical not
philosophical uh political said you know the Democrats feel this way about it the Republicans
feel this way about it and it and but I don’t really hold to either of those views and I’m not
going to identifi where I say he says I don’t really sit in either of those camps I can see
both of them but I’m not identifying that black and white one of those is not my Camp it’s just
what they their camps so you’re you’re sitting above it so in regard to traditions and rituals
can you sit above the RIT rituals and traditions feel like you can participate if you want to
but it’s not really you you’re not obsessed by it and should we be looking at traditions
and rituals laws in that way we’ll participate but it’s not mine um wait will participate still
even though it’s not mine well you can choose to believe his statement is like you know you can
believe which way you want on that but I’m I’m not uh I’m not governed by either not governed by
the tradition do are we governed by our Traditions do they inform us who we are and everyone else who
we are based on the tradition we follow I okay um govern yes well okay so talk about that for
a minut I’m thinking about uh if you’ve got traditions and rituals and routines and habits you
know then you don’t have to think anymore you’ve decided already you’ve decided ahead of time this
is how my life will be and um it’s it’s easier if those decisions are made for you um and you know
you know how you’re going to react when something happens you know how you’re going the choice that
you’re going to make when presented with a choice because your ritual or tradition or routine or
you know anything that you’ve already decided about so it’s You’ decided it and bring the ritual
down to the Habit level if your autonomic system your money M muscle memory takes over you don’t
have to think about it anymore it’s a tradition it’s a ritual this is just the way I brush my
teeth it’s the way I hold the bat when I when I go get up to bat that’s how I hold the bat
or I hold my tennis rocket um it just becomes you so you are identified by that ritual yeah it
becomes you and you are you are your and so like when we’re talking about religious rituals um
every Sunday you perform these three things or um every time you go to bed this is your ritual
uh yeah I I don’t have a lot of experience in many religions but that I imagine there’s a lot of
stuff that you could say are rituals that they do frequently because of their belief well it’s the
the Muslim pray seven times a day and face Mecca when you do it yeah yeah um or pray at every meal
if you if you can eat something pray over the food right it’s just a ritual it’s a certain type of
person that will do that and when they’re in the room with your party your group you may defer to
that say would you like to pray yeah you bet let’s TR PR it’s it’s the most respectful to go with
the strictest religion in the room maybe yeah if and and it sometimes that person will have such a
ritual they’ll say we can’t eat yet until we pray even though it’s your house I’m going to go over
to your house I’m G make you pray I’m not going to eat unless you let me pray we don’t generally
pray in this house um well thanks for inviting me over but see you tomorrow you can be it could
be yeah that’s the the people who are what they say the religion on their sleeves that it’s it’s
everything they offer you can’t without without having a religious context to it right um do you
know anyone like that I well yeah I do yeah um a few people in my history you know that just
everything was everything’s talked about is a spiritual event um let’s pray before we get in
the car because we we’re driving down the road you know be praying all the time or continue
um yeah I mean I had a friend here in town that that’s the all he would talk about his life was
just a spirit spiritual connection to everything okay but like if if he visited someone who wasn’t
religious would he demand that they have a prayer or or would he leave if they rejected a prayer do
you think I think I talking about somebody else I think you would they would uh ostracize the person
so oh yeah so you’re you’re probably wouldn’t even be friends with them in the first place you’re
not gonna be friends yeah if if it if it came up that they happened to meet at a at the fair let’s
say and they just started talking with a group of people that person they they would break away um
and and not not be part of the group I mean you said you said crap and I don’t believe in cuss
words oh yeah yeah so thanks I I’m walking away so Pious people the piety they walk around with
a piety they know the right way to live that’s a black and white thinking though is wearing your
religion on your sleep it is yeah not allowing someone else to be them you’re gonna say I know
that I’m right this is the right way to live and if you don’t believe in Jesus Christ he’s the he’s
the only thing to talk about everything relates to Jesus Christ and it does you can make it happen
that way but if you live your life that way and it’s on your sleep and you say before we start
this conversation let’s have a quick prayer to make sure that Jesus Christ is with us in it in
this conversation and that’s what they would do with everything and you can do that I suppose
maybe from a religious standpoint if you if you truly have a belief that your religion is the way
to live you should live that way but you have the rights to impose your tradition and rituals
on others or just refuse to participate with those while you’re living your religious life yeah
and you do you have that right to do you have the right to separate yourself from society because
of your religious beliefs your rituals and your Traditions I think people do have that right I
it’s it’s just the same as what was the story there there’s a a book and it was a movie about
a guy that went to Alaska and lived by himself um don’t remember doesn’t sound familiar I’ll have
to add that to this but it’s it was a movie it was on Netflix a couple years ago in the wild to the
wild or something like that out in the wild so he he went up to Alaska and I think I heard someone
describing just that movie and the book that he wrote he a book was written about him because he
was eaten by bears up in Alaska yeah he was he died but all his writings his words his journals
were there and so that’s what they into the while they think it’s what called something like that
suddenly I really want to watch this movie yeah so but he was up there and he he he kept his journal
he was by himself but he said there and in his journals it rolled kind of dark at the end saying
not having people around me is the worst thing I I can’t it just can’t function if you’re by yourself
yeah and his final words there was some entries that it just got dark and darker as he was in
up there by himself you know no one to talk to that uh those series they do alone the series on
Netflix about people surviving reality shows the reality show six months or three months or what
however long it is and they go crazy sometimes they go crazy they just have to get back to
society so if it’s a ritual that you want to just be yourself be alone a Hermit is hermitude
a valid ritual you need other people talk about the the chemical reactions I mean the oxytocin
that is the communal chemical that causes you to want to be around people and and feeds it it
Sparks or feeds when when you are in company with others so makes us chemically a communal system
we want to be with other people and then we’re benefited by it so we don’t want to be a is that
are you saying that’s the purpose of the oxytocin hormone or chemical that’s what I’m saying it is
I think I think that’s what it is I was going to go back and look in the both of you again it’s
it’s described in three chapters and uh Leaders Eat Last in that book by Simon Sy oh I don’t have
that so he describes all of that and goes through how it works with with leadership and how you’re
working together but any number of books there’s a lot of books that talk about the the endorphins
and dopamine and serotonin and oxytocin what they how they all operate in your brain to give you
motivation to continue doing things and usually that has to do with accomplishing things following
your rituals or your habits or your patterns endorphins happen from working on something um
or striving long enough that the Endorphin kick in the runner High that’s what that is continues
let let you say I’ve practiced long enough and now it feels good okay yeah um the dopamine is the
pleasure Center feeds you something’s exciting to you’re interesting or you gain excitement from
it serotonin is an accomplishment thing and then oxytocin is a communal is dealing with others
working with others right sharing of love just my general understanding of those things yeah
um what question was I think of that I wanted to ask about that see you talk so long that I
lose what I was thinking first you forget that you’re running this conversation well no remember
that you’re running this conversation uh the thing was where did you where did you start you were
talking about alone being alone the um rituals do you have to have rituals yeah Ari is
it important that you have rituals or Traditions or I mean I keep bringing in habits and
routines but they’re not as meaningful as rituals and traditions that’s where we started habits
and routines are individual you can’t have a community habit and you know you’d call it a
tradition if it’s the community a whole town does this absolutely in hille when you’re singing
around the tree it’s not a it’s not a habit to sing around the tree it’s tradition because the
whole Community does it right but if if you had the habit of if you had the tradition I guess
it could be a tradition you’re decorating your tra you do that personally or individually if even
if you’re just by yourself what is a habit that’s not a tradition what kind of habits would you say
aren’t tradition like brushing your teeth or yeah if you had a habit of brushing your teeth every
night or just once a week whatever your habit is it’s your habit it’s like it’s not a tradition to
brush your teeth a week it’s just a habit I only brush it my tooth I brush my tooth once a week
when does The Habit turn into a tradition or the difference so brushing teeths is just a habit
or or um picking your nose it’s just a habit all right I’m thinking about the you know what
I’m thinking about yeah I do yeah know exactly you know exactly right there the F on the roof
um what were the Traditions that tevia was so concerned about losing like I would like to figure
out what a tradition really means before I can determine where habits turn into Traditions yeah
the big one that changed in fidler on the r was selecting your own spouse and being arranged
in the marriage okay and that’s not a habit that’s a tradition that’s a tradition yeah it
wasn’t a habit because she didn’t want to love laser wolf right that wasn’t the thing and so
tevia had to come up with a with a dream or a story so his wife and his everyone would
understand yeah this came from somewhere above us and and that’s something Traditions are
supposedly given from a stance ahead of above us outside of ourselves we’re not just deciding
something bigger than us and that’s why he had to make up that dream to explain to his wife
this is why because my mother came back from the grave and said no he can’t he’s got to marry
him right so you know it was a lie have you lied to his wife right uh but was it a good lie was
it it broke with tradition in order to break with tradition you have to have sumary reason um
so maybe that wasn’t the a good way to do it but again we were talking about stories there’s no way
you can change that storyline he he can’t couldn’t have come up with another way there’s probably
another way that we can do it in that story that was the only way he could do it and who’s to say
that that he didn’t actually have that dream he explained to her the dream but it came from his
brain so he imagined the dream and isn’t that what a dream is his imagination anyway way yeah
so it was given to him even if lucidly a lucid dream he said that she told me to do this but that
was a break of a tradition the tradition was your parents select your your spouse and it’s still
a tradition in places right I think that still exists arranged marriages yes they they happened
in feudal times in order to join lands and to be appropriate you know you you’re going to get the
power that you need by marrying into this family right so the clear difference between a habit and
a tradition is that a habit is for yourself and a tradition is is from and for a bigger outside
of yourself yeah tradition you’re trying to obey a higher power or obey a higher ideal even
right I mean we have we have Christmas tradition and well those in regard to that the Christmas
tree we have Pagan Traditions the the Pagan tradition of the Easter basket or the the
Christmas tree um whatever it represented when we’re participating in those Traditions we’re not
thinking this is to appease the pagan gods like right it’s it’s evolved into a cultural tradition
or a community tradition or a family tradition even even there whether it’s the guys are Mother
Nature we’re just appeasing Mother Nature by by honoring the tree which she created right you
all of that can be there but even the even as they put it together without having a God just put
up on top of it and that’s what I think the Pagan concept is it’s not really looking at Superior
palet that’s saying this is what you should do but it’s saying I I just want to honor this for this
reason for whatever reason right I want to honor this rock now it’s a tradition that the the Rocks
where where do we on a rock the um Mount Rushmore it’s just rocks they made art out of it but you
have to stay on the path don’t touch it way that you can’t touch it and you’re not going to go and
you’re not going to climb on it you’re not going to do anything you know you’re not going to shoot
a rocket at it or bottle rockets try to hit its face they probably frown on all that stuff there’s
no firearms in the place you can’t shoot it yeah yeah so it’s it’s kind of law tradition is
law so you can you can say the law is tradition as well we have the tradition of driving on the
right side of the street in America right United States left side of the street in Europe yeah
wasn’t um that oh that book that we listened to um about some it was written by some young
younger guy uh Stephan arel probably probably that guy where he was talking about the our laws
and our money system and everything is are are myths that our entire country have accepted as
truth myths does that sound familiar yeah well kind of and it is something he probably would have
talked about if it were if it was him yeah but introduce myths to tradition how do how do those
things coincide yeah so you’re talking about about pagan Traditions or Mother Nature um and that’s
the the idea that somebody imaginary would be pleased by you doing these things right and and is
that I tried I tried years ago to stop celebrating Christmas the way our culture celebrates Christmas
and I even wrote letters to everyone saying hey we’re going to switch our f us to Jesus Christ
and this was like during the time when I was trying to figure out what I believed you so it
was it was before I turned agnostic atheist I was attempting to bring my family back to what
Christmas was supposed to mean in the Christian Community and that was one of the most difficult
things to get anyone to understand to consider even to consider it is the most difficult thing
yeah and everyone goes through that I I believe that everyone who says who has a a Christian
belief in Jesus Christ that he actually was born on a given day and we’re gonna we’re going to
celebrate his birth not not gifts giving gifts but that you have to go through that struggle of
how does it feel to you how how should we act now yeah and that’s but even if you if you come
up with a a different idea of how should we act it’s impossible to change I mean it’s so difficult
well maybe not impossible you can change tradition Trad can change but it takes everybody it it it
takes a long time like Evolution yeah it’s like an evolutionary change uh something will take
thousands of years um and I don’t know well like the tradition we don’t have the tradition of of
gardening anymore gardening is just a little thing but it used to be the the base of society everyone
yeah had to have their Farm because that’s how you ate right but when and it wasn’t if it’s if it’s
how you ate it it’s not so much a tradition like it it was your livelihood but then after you
didn’t need it anymore then it was a tradition right it evolved into being just a tradition
well having the gardens and I don’t know in that strict word I’m not sure that that’s traditional
traditional is the way we do it in the western world as opposed to how they do it in the East
or something right a traditional way of having a garden traditional Garden we’ll talk about you
have a greenhouse or do you have a traditional Garden so um myth mythology though I want to
talk about that more because you if you bring up something as a myth are all Traditions myths
in reality because I mean heav and and P on the roof it was it was just a myth he could change it
he had the ability to change it individually in his household yeah and it didn’t change it for the
community for everyone else but his daughter and her future husband were very happy with the change
so he could do that and maybe the priest didn’t really agree with it or the rabbi whoever was
responsible wouldn’t have agreed but that’s what they did right they did it anyway he was able to
change that tradition and for his family blessing to it and that worked and yeah the whole world was
changing around them anyway they were being kicked out of their wherever they were living so as the
world changes you you do change the traditions and the ways of operating but myths all Traditions
are myths do you believe that I believe that all Traditions stem from myths so what is the myth
that underlies it how do you determine how how do you differentiate those if it’s not a myth itself
it just stems from it well are we talking about tradition as a noun or as a verb um like what
I’m saying yeah whatever whatever the grammar is yeah you know I tell everybody thinks that I’m
a grammar Nazi but turns out I don’t know a lot idea what I’m really saying but I’m trying to
figure it out traditional know nouns and verbs you can’t tradition something you can have a
traditional something but you can’t tradition something so that’s it can’t be a verb so you
have um there you can think about traditions in a couple of different ways and uh one way I
suppose would fit in the myth and story kind of category um but then there’s like this it’s like
a tradition is something you do there’s that’s just even further like that’s lower that’s below
the myth and story tradition that’s like well what we said a tradition has to be a larger group has
to be a larger group that does it one individual saying it’s closer it’s it’s like um let me see
if I can come up with an example yeah that’s what we have to do and where about Thanksgiving the
tradition of Thanksgiving dinner okay the story is the tradition started with this one big Pilgrim
event which I I doubt that that’s actually like how they depict it in elementary school that’s
probably not how it worked right you know um the so that tradition started started when that story
was being told like it didn’t start with the event itself it started as they told the story I think
yeah it might not have come into play for hundreds of years 100 years 50 years or 20 years later and
we didn’t look this up so we don’t know for but that’s we don’t yeah that’s fine yeah Thanksgiving
dinner is something that most everyone does now um now it has a meaning it has a tradition in today’s
society based on the stories that been told about it yeah um and so there’s all kinds of new stories
you could find something new right um but the tradition it wasn’t started on the basis that it
that they said let’s start a new tradition when the Indians and the pilgrims got together they
just said you know we’ just harvested our corn and I can cook that you got some F there let’s
just let’s just get together and let’s kill that turkey so it it doesn’t it was just a dinner
for them right a harvest meal you know we have a harvest uh celebrations too and that kind of
just rolled into Thanksgiving yeah and so I don’t think a tradition is the story I think there’s a
story and you get Traditions from the story the tradition develops in consciousness of the people
hearing the story Bing how about that yeah so what are there New Traditions that are coming up um
like for whole communities not just families well in relation to Technologies we’ve got technology
coming up you we’ve got a a Minecraft tradition right almost everyone would know what Minecraft
is well we don’t have a Minecraft tra tradition okay what would you call it problem that’s
that’s the right word for Minecraft problem um so I I think we’re dancing around two meanings
of the of tradition now I mean I think we’re identifying that that what you’re saying Minecraft
tradition is different than me saying every month we get together and we play Minecraft and that’s
our tradition like those are it’s it’s hazy the difference between those two but it seems like
there is a difference and that’s what I’m I’m trying to point to that because you said it’s the
stories we’re telling stories about our technology and our gaming systems yeah and the gaming systems
they develop somewhat of General Traditions what’s the tradition in regard to gaming it it is the
the adult man in his mother’s basement is that a tradition that’s the story that’s the story
still so it’s not necessarily a tradition people don’t really want to be that guy in the mother’s
basement but yeah and they’re not they’re not holding on to that as a as a position community
in a community they’re not they’re not saying well this is the tradition that we’ve always had we got
to keep to our Traditions okay so if a tradition is something that’s a positive thing to hold
on to or are there negative Traditions that we hold see that that I would identify as a negative
tradition in society they and it’s not necessarily a tradition what is it what what causes guys to
just play video games and do nothing else um lack of motivation we talked about this last week was
it last week we’re talking about well and that’s mooching okay how does it relate to mooching
what what what were they doing the tradition of mooching or the tradition of laziness yeah can
you call that a tradition if a family operates that way you know we’re just G to ask Mom and Dad
for everything it’s always you know I’m thinking tradition is something that you intentionally are
doing like you’re deciding to keep up a tradition it doesn’t just happen unless it’s unless it’s a
habit for you and and also a bunch of other people at the same time like you could have a tradition
of brushing your teeth together with your family every night and that comes as a collection
from the collection of habits that each of you and your family have already of brushing your
teeth at night if you do it together then it’s a tradition not a habit right and so deciding to do
that you can accidentally not do it but you can’t I mean you can accidentally do it but it’s not a
tradition if you accidentally do it okay like a family reunion you can say this our traditional
family reunion this happens at this time right and if you all happen to get together on the
same day at the same in place but you didn’t mean to then that’s not a tradition that’s and
traditions change coincidence yeah they change based on who’s there I guess so you know you
have a tradition of a family reunion we’ve had a family reunion that’s been going for years as
long as I’ve been alive and you’ve been alive but it’s starting to fail because it’s getting
too big or it’s getting too old or all the original siblings are dead now there’s only two
left so once they’re done it it just dissipates it will change right and and uh they’re they’re
trying we’re all trying to keep the tradition alive um but if we stop trying to do that then it
will stop being something we do stop happening and the we that are doing there’s there’s a group
that’s wanting to keep it going and they’re the ones trying but then there’s half of the family
or nine10 of the family it really doesn’t care yeah because they already they get together with
their smaller groups their closer relations and there is a time I mean that family reunion
when when it started with Mom and Dad up at the top that died first they probably started
it because they wanted their family around them instead of their grandparents let’s just bring
the family around me and my 14 kids right so sometime they do that and say okay now we’re not
going to be part of the the larger the other re anymore or we still go and maybe they were for
a little while but that has disappeared long ago yeah we’re going to keep this one going and
when you’re all when you’re there the tradition operates so Traditions are bleeding they’re
they’re cyclical they can cycle as well um cycle like you can have one type of tradition it depends
on who it’s connected to I guess if the tradition of Christmas let’s say is connected to God and
Jesus Christ if you decide that you no longer follow Jesus Christ or that there is no longer
a God in the world you’re in you probably won’t participate in Christmas if you’re by yourself if
you’re if you’re in living in isolation or let’s say join the community the meaning behind the
meaning behind Christmas for me and my family is still because you’re in a in a spirit soety that
allows the allows that to be be the case right if you had a whole community that decided we are all
anti Jesus Christ yeah they wouldn’t decorate town they would probably come up with another tradition
a replacement tradition and it might it might be a winter solstice thing instead of a Christmas thing
right and there’s people that talk about that yeah that they’ll participate and if someone gives them
a gift they’ll say okay accept your gift that’s fine thanks I don’t know I’m not GNA give anything
I’m not obligated or you’ll have a ritual uh you you’ll join a a group that that can’t celebrate
holidays the a Seventh Day Adventist type thing yeah or or Jehovah’s Witness Jehovah’s Witness
yeah or or the Muslim Community I and I don’t know they they don’t believe any Jesus Christ they’re
not participating in Christmas because of Christ if a Muslim participates in Christmas it’s because
of the the gift and the friendliness however to be part of society yeah but they’re not religiously
connected to it so you have different reasons to connect to a Rel to a tradition right even if
it’s even if it’s a religious tradition even if you can term it yeah like you still have
non-religious people participating in the in the tradition like Easter uh I we we do Easter
egg hunts in my family even though we don’t go to Easter Sunday mass or you don’t have to be or
celebrating the crucifixion right um so you don’t have to you don’t have to believe in the story or
the myth behind the tradition to find enjoyment in the tradition to find a social connection to it
a connection it’s the social it’s the sociality of it that’s that’s different than the reason
behind it right right and that’s why I think a lot of traditions carry on so long is because
it’s it’s enjoyable for it for its own sake and not and not because it’s a strict rule so what
about imposed by a church or a cult or a you know a higher authority higher authority that it’s a
tradition for many people to have season tickets to their favorite team yes and so and and the team
being there in a city I mean they’ll they’ll break tradition uh who is it the St Louis Cardinals who
went to Glendale at the Phoenix um the Raiders the Raiders are in Las Vegas now the football team
right built a brand new perfect stadium in Las Vegas they were in Los Angeles and they were in
Oakland so they were in Cali for a long time in different cities and now they’re a Nevada team and
they’ll change their tradition the tradition now the Raiders are in their Nevada right so a team
will decide to change tradition and like the who is it the Redskins which were the woke crowd
being politically correct had to change them from the Washington Reds to the Washington what
are they now I don’t remember what they they are now I remember that whole um but they couldn’t be
red anymore the whole conversation around that and and everybody’s saying well what else are we going
to have to change like the University of Utah need to be not UTS anymore they need to be something
else yeah because you can’t use any culture’s original name anymore because this woke culture
says we have to break these Traditions that are harmful to us and they succeeded in some cases
breaking some of them letting words be harmful that’s just a silly thing I don’t know I I don’t
I don’t know for sure what I feel about that but well yeah you know you feel bad about it it’s it’s
not a good thing but it’s it’s people trying to change the tradition it was just like people who
says who say that Thanksgiving wasn’t wasn’t that or the Christmas you know it’s not about giving
gifts it’s about Jesus Christ and so let’s change this tradition yeah and like you said about every
religious person who’s thinking that through says we want to focus on the real meaning of Christmas
we don’t want to focus on gift giving and and the Santa Claus and the reindeer all these holiday
traditions that have come up the bastardization of the whole yeah the commercialization Christmas
starting with Black Friday and we’ve got to be in the season all the way from Thanksgiving to
Christmas but I do that anyway because I find enjoyment in that it’s fun because it’s fun to
be it so it gives you a an opportunity to uh to thrive I don’t know to to enjoy life yeah
Thrive yes it’s the enjoy enjoying life you are part of season so you you you’re you anticipate
that season all year and when you get into the season it’s just enjoyable and you’re you’re
smiling more you’re happier it’s I think that’s in the chemicals that’s the oxytocin it’s you’re part
of a community you’re part of an event a tradition that now you can enjoy being in that shopping
center at 3 in the morning with 500 or the people just it’s just so fun if if it is fun I
don’t know I’ve done it couple you think it’s spun and I I I’m okay not doing it again just fine
right because you don’t think it’s fun anymore yeah I watched the people once and that’s good
enough for me and I don’t need any of the things that are on sale for cheap at the time right
right so I mean if they would put milk on on sale if it was a 10 cent milk yell and milk thing
I’d be there at 3 in the morning but they don’t do that the groceries grocery aisles are just they’re
all the same that’s funny um so rituals though how are rituals different from Traditions well it says
it’s got a religious or a solemn context so maybe people the is more of a law you’re operating it
as a law rather than a a what a an event Pastime a Pastime a pasttime and event a tradition you don’t
have any laws that says you have to uh follow this tradition if you live in this country that there’s
no law for Thanksgiving or for Christmas there’s not even any you know there a there’s a holiday
identified but it’s not a law that says we are closing the government because everyone has to
participate in so closing the government for convenience so that people can participate but not
requiring it and if someone wants to work through their holiday they’re not going to be put in jail
for working on a holiday if the business wants to stay open on Christmas because for whatever reason
uhuh you don’t have to close a ritual all right a ritual is something that you follow as course of
law that’s more black and white I think yeah is there’s there’s um it’s strict it feels like yeah
there’s a strict rule it is it is black and white it’s done this way that’s why it’s a ritual
because it’s done this way yeah I performed a Google search on this okay and that the top
the top result is pretty useful I think this is um from the conversation.com written a couple
of years ago it says most case in most cases Traditions are accompanied by rituals um and the
difference this author is saying the difference between a tradition and a ritual is that um a
tradition refers to the passing down of customs and beliefs from one generation to the next and a
ritual is a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order and which is often embedded
in a larger symbolic system such as religion or philosophy so the example directly after that
is while celebrating birthdays is a tradition blowing out the candles on a cake is a ritual
right because you have to make a wish first if you make your wish right you make a wish and
then you blow out the candles and there you have to sing the song you have sing the song before
you can without singing the song did you wish yet you can’t wish yet I have to sing first then
you can wish and then you blow the candles out and you can only use one breath and if you use two
breaths then your wish is out the window right right and so similarly while getting married is
a tradition exchanging vows is a ritual within that tradition and you can have different rituals
depending on the ritual of the Bel of the dance with the mother and the father right and and maybe
you are in a a religion where you have to break a glass between you or you wrap a ribbon around
your hands and that’s a symbolic of something that’s a ritual rituals can be a one-time thing I
suppose I was thinking at first that maybe rituals have to be they’re generally more frequent they
happen more frequently than other than Traditions or something but like you can have a once in
a-lifetime ritual that you know just happens once I I don’t know I I don’t think it can be a ritual
if it’s just once in a lifetime it has to be a well hopefully procedural thing hope ideally when
you get married you only get married once and you break the glass between you once and then that’s
the only time you ever do it in your whole life okay that’s the only time you participate in that
ritual as an individual happening all the time for your community but it’s a Once in a-lifetime
event for you for you yeah so then that’s like the ritual of baptism you’re baptized once yeah if it
if it sits and that’s the way you’re done you’re baptized once you could join seven different
churches that all have their baptisms you could be baptized seven times nothing wrong with that
either but it’s once inside that ritual system right um and the ritual a ritual has definite
procedures and processes rules and probably ways to break it too you know if you break this then
you’re no longer a part of our ritual you know if you break your first tier then you’re breaking
that marriage and you’re going to have to get the divorced because you’ve broken it so the divorce
is you’re going to break that marriage and so you have the chance to go and break a glass with
someone else because our Glass Broken is already done right and then you have the ritual of signing
the divorce papers yeah which hopefully you only do once you might do it seven times who know right
um so that I don’t know I don’t know where I was going with that uh so rituals versus Traditions
tradition is like the the story that gets passed down and the ritual are the important parts of
it and a community understands the story The General story is is a a broad a broad expanse
a ritual is you can subscribe to a specific ritual inside that tradition so it has people
who can subscribe to different rituals in it yeah in regard to the the tradition is generally
accepted it’s a very large picture inside it and that’s what he said you You’ got rituals that may
be different treating the same tradition right so different ways of being married or accepting
vows or even different ways to have a minister or a Justus of the peace or just common law just
sign a paper and the government will accept it or you can go to a community that doesn’t need to be
have a paper sign it’s going gain citizenship in this country that allows common mom marriage to be
just by voice yeah um so the the Step Beyond that so we went from the largest tradition and then you
get into rituals and then you got habits um habits habits which are personal that’s not even a ritual
so we talked about that I I still can’t think of a a habit that would be a community habit like
this whole group has done it so many times that it’s going to happen whether you try or not so
hunting camp try that idea you have you have hunt hunting season is a tradition yeah it it opens at
a certain time and it’s traditional to have it in the fall and that’s just before the rut so you you
got reasons to to have it at this time and so the open hunting season you have people with rituals
that say we’re going to do our hunting camp at this location because we always do it there um and
maybe inside that ritual I don’t know if it’s a habit I’ve heard of the the bean pot at a hunting
camp and they just cook the beans and they you add no more beans to it add more meat to it but it’s
always on the stove always cooking yeah yeah and you just you’re eating out of it and then you just
add more to it and let it continue to cook right um and I don’t know I’ve never participated in
a pot like that a pot luck like that I’ve heard about it and the beans are just always on the
stove they’re always cooking so that’s is that a habit or is that another ritual the beans is
just a a non-written ritual the way you eat the way you do your meals when you’re in a ritualistic
camp yeah the the bean pot would be a it wouldn’t be a ritual it it would be a tradition I think
it’s a traditional Bean dinner that’s how we do that or a habit see the Habit if dep on if you
well what’s the difference between a habit and a tradition because personal Traditions it’s just a
tradition I always I always stop up my full plate with the bread when I’m done it’s just a habit
but you traditionally do that using your bread to wipe the plate when you’re done so that you
don’t have to wash so much off there’s a reasons you’re doing it muscle memory because we talked
about muscle memory that you you get your habits into an autonomic nervous system response is
it a tradition or when does it turn into just a response a reaction this is how I is I have a and
I have a habit of needing to go to the bathroom every time I go to work I walk through the doors
and then I’m like all right I have to pee y That’s the first place I go when I get to the office is
the bathroom or when I get home when you get back home the first place you go is to the bathroom
right and it’s it’s not that you are saying I walk in the door and I go it’s my body is saying
guess where you are yeah so it’s a habit it’s been engendered in you from from doing it so much you
know here’s the change in the environment so when the environment changes your body feels like
releasing so you let’s go to the B visit the bathroom first as soon as you get home yeah that’s
that’s an interesting phenomenon to that um my bladder my my brain know is making that connection
and sending the signal automatically you know and it’s an autonomic it’s not something that you’re
thinking about you say I just when I get home what am I going to do first I’m going to go to the
bathroom I’m consiously go yeah even if I have to rush into doing something else when I get to
everything else I’m that having to pee like but autonomically Hab habitually I’m gonna visit the
bathroom first and I’m not GNA read the magazine this time because I got other things to do so
this time I’m just gonna well I’m just gonna take what I’m saying is sometimes I I don’t have
time to hit the bathroom first I have to do something else first and while I’m doing that
it’s so much harder because I haven’t if you’re required to bring the milk in first and put it in
the refrigerator whatever you get it right there’s something has to be done before the bathroom it’s
not it’s not comfortable then yeah not comfortable but so that I think this defines a habit is
that a habit as opposed to a tradition it’s not necessarily a tradition that you’re doing it
because you’re being habitually directed to right further down in this article that we’re definitely
going to have to put in the show notes it says um rituals aren’t just in grand gestures um some
rituals are so embedded into our everyday lives we no longer recognize them like the particular way
someone makes their tea or coffee in the morning is a ritual they enact daily like making making
coffee in the morning is a habit but the way you do it is the ritual and so needing to go to the
bathroom when I get to work is a habit but if I always go to one restroom and not any of the other
hundred that are in the building and I always use that one stall and I always get the toilet paper
in a certain way those are rituals embedded into the habit of going to the bathroom when I get
to work there’s rituals within habits on how you accomplish The Habit that you have yeah so ritual
is just the how you do something it’s just the process by which you do it the process yeah it’s a
process and sometimes the process is uh driven by your personal preferences or sometimes the process
is driven by your religious sometimes it’s dict to you that you a process you learned sometimes
the process you learned from the society the law or it’s process that you develop yourself or
like laws how I how I um how I follow the laws of driving is is my ritualistic way of doing it
it’s different than anyone else does yeah how I choose to stay on the right side of the road or
stay keep from running into cars is different how everyone else keeps from running into cars and you
do it same every time you drive my own ritual so that’s what turns it into a ritual right within
your habit of driving places so it’s a habit or a ritual that the Habit is a habit something
that that’s done anyway I mean if uh if a cat runs across the road in front of you and you’re
driving you either have the habit of slamming on your brakes and trying to steer a away from it or
speeding up so one of those habits yeah come out naturally going to do yeah without thought what’s
what’s the thing that that you’re spurred to do and that’s not a tradition it might be a tradition
might be a habit I think it’s just a habit it’s where you where you happen to head right um or
people that that use their horn yeah instead of their breakes they have a habit of trying to alert
other people or just taking care of your own self right yeah I don’t think I’ve ever doubted my
horn it’s a difficult thing to do if you’re of a certain personality where you don’t want to
bother anyone else and then there’s people that use it all the time you hear horns right and they
just think it’s a friendly thing yeah they use it to communicate yeah um so you asked earlier if
rituals or Traditions are necessary right are they as part of our communal um social our sociality is
it necessary yeah is it is it what I if if I was a Storyteller I would say something like traditions
and rituals are the threads that weave together Society in the fabric of life or something okay
so think of that’s what keeps us together your neighbors in a neighborhood is the tradition
necessary in a neighborhood when someone puts up their Christmas lights everyone knows well that
Christmas and and there’s a zealot they got their Christmas lights up first in our neighborhood and
right you may choose to participate and oxytocin the way that works just the fact that you saw
their Christmas lights gives you a little feeling of spur if if it’s something that you want to do
so if it’s a tradition that you agree with and you hear the story or you see something some move
towards that then you get a good feeling about that yeah I think there are some communities where
Christmas lights are a tradition uh and and and that’s that’s important to their Community if it
becomes important to everyone in the neighborhood a neighborhood will say we are the Christmas
neighborhood of this town yeah and if they stopped that tradition then they would find that
they’re not as close to each other as they used to be or if someone else buys a house in there in
the middle of the neighborhood that’s Christmas Lighty and he’s a Grinch and doesn’t want to
do Christmas then you have this one black house inside of all this Christmas spirit inside of this
color yeah yeah and uh that’s kind of happening with trick-or-treating now it used used to be a
big thing and now there’s more Trunk or Treats um that people are choosing to do instead and then
they just turn off their lights and now you’ve got like 10 or 15 houses in between each each house
that trigger trading and you know that’s one of those trigger trading has been a tradition but for
all of my life growing up in yours we chose not to participate yeah um and I you know I like but we
had a replacement tradition which was for a few years which was we would go down and we turn off
all the lights and go down into the basement and watch movies and eat Halloween candy so that was
one of them I I liked the other one one of them the other one was we’d go to the time share
go find a hotel with the pool and we just go find a hotel enjoy a swimming pool for the for
Halloween night I think we only did thatou F I think you did that more after I had left home did
that a couple times but that would have that was a good a good thing just got out of town it was
a good replacement tradition leave your CL your house closed and just and go somewhere else for
the night but see we were battling what we thought and if you’re battling a tradition like that that
you you just don’t want to celebrate what it is the tradition celebrates right you’re gonna you’ve
got to find an alternate something else to do and we weren’t necessarily battling against the idea
let let someone else have fun but I don’t like to be scared and I don’t want to deal with what that
represents so I’m going to find something else to do it maybe just as fun yeah so you did make
it fun enough uh I don’t think that I ever felt like I was missing out on dressing up yeah well
looking back I don’t think may I bet I bet there were times when people are asking me hey what are
you going to be for Halloween and I’m like nothing what’s Halloween what even is that um but and
now that I’ve you know I was trying to you try to develop the Traditions that you want to prop
promote in your family now it’s just me uh you know empty nester what am i g what am I gonna do
um the two of us as a couple we decide that we’re not trying to teach each other or anything we’re
not trying to train or to develop something we already know what we feel um yeah but I’ll get a
the box of candy and the bag of candy because kids are going to come to the door and I’m going to be
home anyway might as well just hand them out some treats and give them a handful of something
because they’re now they’re neighborhood kids we’ve got 12 kids in the neighborhood now that we
didn’t have two years ago so now that we’re in a neighborhood we have kids I do that but my wife
still is not that excited about handc cand she didn’t want to participate so you have people that
will still say no even though there’s kids in the neighborhood and we want to be good neighbors we
don’t want to be neighbors in this way we want to have a black house we’ll go down to the basement
and watch a movie and leave all the lights off and yeah we don’t want to give anyone ideas of what
we might be okay with yeah and I don’t know that there’s anything wrong with either of those I mean
you can be the neighborhood on the street that all the kids look at and say those are grumpy people
they don’t like us they wish our we wer here or you could they could say you know he gave
us dollar bills with our candy no one does that he’s the best friend I have whatever yeah so since
there’s only 10 people that come by and trick or treat at our house we get $1 bills so you decide
if a tradition or a ritual is important to you if it furthers your personal mission or and who you
want to be in your community I guess who you want to be in your in your Community I would yeah I
would I would put up lights on my house if I felt like everyone would like me better if I did that
yeah after living in this house for a little over a year now I’m pretty certain that they would be
totally happy if I left my front yard weeds yeah nobody cares no one here is going to care what I
do with my house the city will care but n of the neighbors will care they’re not going to think any
worse or better of you they’re not even going to think of you anyway right they don’t even care
that you have a green roof they don’t even know that you have a green roof if they never look
at my house right right they don’t they don’t know anything happens right there but I don’t
care what they do at their houses either right it doesn’t I’m I’m not concerned I mean the fact
that he put the fence up concerned and that’s nice I noticed it but you’re not it was interesting you
spent a lot of money on the fence the fence across the street is what you’re talking about Street
yeah they did that because they have three dogs so it was important they were going to do chain
link but they found out that the vinyl fence was the same price as chain link and so they figured
so they want maybe it would look dos so they got they have three dogs they keeping the dogs in
the yard so they put a fence up for their yard for their dogs yeah it wasn’t it wasn’t to keep
people from looking I can still see into their living room window when the blinds are open from
my house as they can see downhill from me so well they can they can see your ceiling bands I guess
right they can’t see your couches but you can see their couches yeah they can’t see my couches now
right um but you know I don’t look I don’t look in their house so exactly anyway that’s why you don’t
have the right there by the window I understand that’s a habit some people have binoculus by their
Windows yeah that that that is a that is a habit and maybe a ritual if um if they all so the habit
is looking out their window with the binoculars but the ritual is whose house do you look at first
yeah uh but importance importance of rituals and traditions I think you’ve got to decide whether
it’s important or not um if you had no rituals or Traditions then then what happens who are you
if you have no TR is that a sign of living in isolation is it possible to being depressed yeah
is it possible to have no Traditions can you live a life with no traditions and the told witness
I mean there’s certain religions that say let’s have no Traditions does that work right can they
do it apparently they still are alive they exist um and what type of life is that I I don’t know
it’ be a good question maybe ask someone who tries to operate without Traditions yeah there are
documentaries and also like Forums on the internet and I’ve watched some of all of that and I think
people when they’re in it when they believe when they’re believing that they don’t celebrate
birthdays and holidays and they they agree with those beliefs um they don’t notice whether they
are or not it’s just another day it doesn’t matter yeah yeah just and uh once they leave then they
then that matters that’s or if they see it that’s when they’re like what this this is what I’ve been
missing out on yeah and then they feel bad because they missed out on you guys lied to me Christmas
doesn’t burn our hearts I my heart doesn’t feel burned right or whatever yeah yeah I’m I’m happier
now I’ve enjoyed this this is contributing to my happiness but that’s just what you’re thinking
about it like you you choose to think things your thoughts um inform your emotions right so
if you’re thinking I missed out then you’re going to fill bad about it if you’re thinking this is
all fine and and well you’re thinking this is I didn’t miss out on anything none of this was even
fun anyway you could think that yeah I don’t need to go another sporting event because I’ve attended
enough so that tradition is it for me or you could say now I found a new tradition Christmas is is
now I’m going to celebrate the rest of my life and don’t feel bad about the time you miss that
that doesn’t mean anything just look forward and move forward with it with the new tradition you
found without feeling bad about not having it in the past um yeah so you choose I think you you
choose what you think the first question can you live without Traditions I think you have tradition
you can’t I mean the tradition of not you think it’s just a part of being alive the tradition
of not having a tradition is a tradition the belief of having no belief is a belief okay Fai
you can’t live without faith you can say I have faith in God or I have faith in no God you still
demonstrating your faith so you’re demonstrating a tradition we have a tradition of not celebrating
Quanza still a tradition yeah that’s like saying I have a habit of not picking my nose yeah
um or a u of not braiding my hair that’s but it’s habitual I habitually don’t braid my
hair not long enough to braid all the time yeah so Traditions just are but rituals just
probably are as well they are Traditions aren’t just ours no Traditions are selected and they’re
a larger group they’re they’re generally accepted well yeah and now I’m remembering something I
said earlier was that a tradition carries on because someone is making it carry on it can phys
because they care for it it’s cared for the story is continues to be told Santa Claus is always
going to exist it would be possible and probably societies have cancelled Santa Claus um there are
probably countries that he doesn’t exist in or especially you know Aboriginal a culture that
never heard of these stories doesn’t have a a history of Santa Claus or of Jesus Christ
or anything that they haven’t heard of and it doesn’t hurt them so that tradition it has
to be promulgated by the people that are that are participating in it and I don’t know of any
Traditions that we’ve stopped what traditions will stop whether that’s important rituals are just how
each person treats it’s their Traditions or their habits it’s the process by which you do something
solemnly do it yeah solemn or religiously and that definition it doesn’t mean that the religion
espouses the tradition you can religiously do something based on your deepest held beliefs um
if my deepest held belief is that cats should not exist on the earth then I’m always going
to push on the pedal on the gas pedal when I see so it’s just my ritual my solemn response all
the neighborhood kids for just just as an as side believe that I kill cats every cat I see I kill
them because I’ve been asked three times in the last two weeks there’s the little kittens around
Dean don’t kill my cats you’re not going to kill these cats are you so they don’t talk to me about
anything else but they said don’t kill these cats okay did you tell one person probably I’m sure I
told him that there cats kittens are out here all the time and when they moved into the neighborhood
I told probably one person that I I found one and I killed the mama and Cat cat and I killed all
the baby cats so now that story I’m the guy that killed the cat once and since I killed the cast
once I’m going to kill every cat I see uh yeah I did tell him that I eliminated cats out of my
backyard at one point are you going to kill the cats no because the kids asked me to not kill
them no they asked you not and so we will see what the result of that is if I killed the cats we
would still have a relatively cat-free environment now that there are six new kittens growing up
chances are that some of them are going to live through the winter and uh and we’ll have a lot of
cats next the The responsible thing to do would be to catch them all and have them fixed well if we
wanted identify was cats but the cats get killed on the road all the time too I’m I’m trusting that
the winter and the foxes and the roads are going to take care of the cats I Believe nature will
take care natural the natural selection of time um they’ll they’ll either die of the cold because no
one’s feeding them I’m not going to feed them if the neighbors want to feed them then they’ll know
where to go for food and they can become a cat that hangs around their house so and that’s fine
I mean cats I’m not allergic to them they don’t hurt me they don’t kill me they won’t bite me so
I’m it’s just a a nuisance that they’re out there with the squirrels they’re challenging squirrels
for my attention squirrel cat so yeah yeah so I’m okay with well what uh what more is there to say
I have 15 minutes okay we so we we deter I so I’m thinking everyone has a tradition everyone has a
ritual you can’t do anything without developing a ritual for it it’s impossible for you to do the
same thing three times in a row without developing ritual how about that so you always develop a
ritual just by by numbering something say number one number two number three you’re either putting
your fingers up first from the index finger or you’re using your pinky first and your ring finger
then your middle finger so you develop a ritual it’s not likely that you do it a different way
every single time you don’t do it a different way every time unless you’re trying to communicate
specially and you put your first finger up first right yeah can communicating from from a pop
gun well what were you doing that close well communicating okay so you you can it’ be hard to
try to do it a different way every time but if you do something if it’s just like how you sit down
in your chair or you get into your car there’s an autonomic way that you sit in your car and you
don’t think about it but if you if you try to watch it watch how you get in your car next time
it’s hard to it’s hard to do if you try to think about it it’s really easy you never you never
hit anything but if you try to think about how you’re going to get in the car you’ll hit your
head almost every time yeah okay so so see see test that out the rituals rituals are built to
keep us safe too okay in your habits that’s an interesting thought you’re going to see things
that you don’t really consciously see and you’ll you’ll duck or you’ll move around um yeah yeah so
I I don’t think I don’t think you can live without Traditions you you develop your own Traditions if
you don’t use your society’s traditions and you develop your own rituals for sure on how to deal
with the Traditions then if you talk about it with your family or with your significant others or
your friends you can adjust your rituals because they say it’s just not right for you to kill cats
all the time so could you please not kill them this winter and you adjust your rituals yeah okay
for one winter I’m not going to kill um yeah and then habits you inform yourself on what habits you
want to build or or not build then right there’s subconscious uh habits that you have that it’s
depends on what you do it’s that uh I think you’re developing habits all the time too we talk about
seven new years resolution and consciously trying to attend to our habits you’re you’re you should
do that if you want to progress it’s good to have habits that you are wanting to to accomplish
right make a decision but if you don’t decide not deciding is deciding on the habits that you’re
taking so no decision is a decision I don’t want to develop any habits well you’re you’re starting
your habits of not developing any habits and you’ll find if you look at it everything you do is
Habitual cleaning the counter off or wiping down after the the table after you eat or wiping the
table after you eat it’s the Habit you either have a habit of doing it or not or picking your nose
you have a habit of either doing it or not using a hanger Chief or a cleanes or um unfortunately
eating what you get out of your nose people sometimes do that and it’s the Habit whether
they consciously want to do it or not right right and that’s some some habits you eventually
realize that it’s a bad habit it’s or it’s not beneficial to you or it’s harmful to you and you
makes you you take steps to you work on breaking it or developing another habit oring that’s
progress progressing in life and that’s Eternal or continual progression the receding Horizon
of perfection you’re still trying to be a more perfect individual based on either your thoughts
or community’s thoughts whoever ever you want to work with yeah and so you create habits so I I
think yeah the summary of all this Traditions are big rituals are how you process those traditions
and habits are individual all way and your rituals and your habits are how you process those habits
so I think traditions and habits are of the same genre it’s things that you do automatically things
that you adhere to and traditions are bigger than you and habits are you are smaller individual
rituals work with both of them right okay okay so I was going to ask another question but I
only have five minutes left so I don’t think time to go another tangent so maybe that’s good
enough we U I think that’s all I was thinking in regard to those whether they’re good or bad is
up to each individual yeah well and maybe maybe it’s outside of that too well you you decide for
yourself whether it’s good or bad because let’s say you have a spouse that hates your habit and
you have to decide do I care if they hate it and if I do then then it’s a bad habit care if I
don’t care then it’s a good habit GNA break my tier one entity is it goingon to break that if I
don’t get rid of this habit or will they be okay if I just do it when I’m not in their presence if
I can continue my habit but just when I’m around them I’ll be more conscientious about it I’ll
try not do it and if they mention it to me I’ll I’ll stop immediately twirling my hair with my
finger that’s a habit that they just really don’t like yeah or snapping my fingers I don’t know
habits or whs or everything yeah just whistling while you work we are we’re all built of habits so
I think you you can’t exist without them let’s go without them either yeah that’s what we came
with and the the body automatically does it you don’t have a choice you can’t say I’m not
gonna operate on any habits today and and that would be so difficult in 10 seconds you will
have you will have accomplished 12 habits I mean just take a step it’s a habit how you
step your breathing is a habit the way you put your tongue when you breathe there’s habits
everywhere and if you just try to think of what what am I doing now that’s what meditation is for
meditation is saying be aware of where you are and what you’re doing if you try to meditate you’ll
find all kinds of things that you’re doing that you had no idea right so interesting meditation
um that’s another thing talk about meditation at some point if you meditate you’ll realize that
you are a habit habitual person you’re you are a habit why and they call that what the Habit that
the nuns wear why is that called The Habit they’re I I don’t know I don’t know why that’s called a
habit I don’t know that’s another definition of it I heard that maybe it has nothing to do actual
Hab what we were just talking about it’s just a a word they decided to use they had to use it
for a reason maybe it’s to remind them that they have no habits they are married to Christ
interesting it reminds you could be that’d be interesting to look up yeah okay well that’s
a homework assignment or some other time is to learn to see what where that word came from
and that’ll open up all kinds of new avenues of conversation and discussion yeah I think so all
right because clothing is a part of ritual anyway yeah what you wear and it’s part of tradition what
you wear is part of tradition and it can be part and it’s it’s a ritual part of your habits you’re
wearing plaid or you’re wearing t-shirts or you say I’ll never wear a t-shirt um yeah and it’s
jeans or it’s stretchy pants or it’s pajama bottoms right you know you’re yeah you have what
you have yoga pants okay alrighty this uh this was a fun topic to visit and I’m going to think
about well of course it’s just how it’s going to go we’ll have to see how this works thank you for
tuning into our podcast we appreciate you taking time to listen we’d love to hear your feedback
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