ENDING A TRADITION

A few days ago I wrote about the tradition of a Christmas letter. I mentioned being ambivalent about giving it up. I am no longer ambivalent and have decided that some things need to be dropped when they no longer serve their original purpose. I suspect that there are very few people in my life who care or who do not know what I am doing during the year. The computer has changed all our lives, even though some don't recognize its importance and won't own one.

Trying to examine what a computer means to me is quite difficult because it has taken over so many functions in my life. I no longer need to buy a reference book. I gave away my outdated encyclopedia set many years ago. I don't believe I have reached for my Oxford Dictionary in so long a time that the dust film it collected is impressive. When I read a book, I don't have to try to figure out the meaning of an unknown word because it is so easy to hit a few keys and get a definition. Merriam-Webster is in a drop down menu below Google, IMDB (International Movie Data Base), Amazon, and a few other (to me) critical sites.

The last newspaper I had delivered by choice was seven years ago. The subscriptions to magazines has dropped down from an all-time high years ago of 18 to 2 today. Currently I am in process of paying bills online and avoiding the pile up of the paper bills mixed in with all the ads and catalogs. Perhaps one day soon, stores will stop sending out so many catalogs when they have our email addresses and send via that media instead.

Just as time alters our bodies, time leaves a mark on tradition. Second languages get lost. Food recipes are lost or just can't be made as they used to taste. Religions are often not continued as before. Traditions get diluted by marriages bringing disparate traditions together, thus diluting customs. Whatever happens, some things need to be changed....and I just changed one.