Belk 1

Cullen Belk
Professor Lucy Steele
UWRT 1103
16 September 2014
Tradition Evolving
Ever since I can remember, my immediate family and I have piled into
our car two Saturdays before Christmas and made our way to our extended
familys house. I never thought about why we did it; I just did it because
that was always how it was done. Thats tradition.
I was having a conversation with one of my close friends when I was a
freshman in high school. He asked me if I wanted to go do something that
weekend I cant remember what it was specifically, but thats not
important. I told him I wouldnt be able to because I had to go celebrate
Christmas with my cousins, aunts, and uncles.
Christmas?! he responded with surprise, Thats not for two weeks!
Why do you celebrate it so early?
Well I paused, since I had never actually given it any thought, Im
not sure why, thats just how we do it. Thats tradition.
Commented [LA1]: I like how you are demonstrating your
awareness of tradition as being a thing.
Commented [LA2]: I dont love the repetition of this phrase. It
feels a bit clichd. Like a line from a musical?
Belk 2

Thats one strange ritual that my family and I do to celebrate
Christmas. Its one of our traditions. Tradition is what starts culture; it is like
the foundation of a building. Without a foundation, a building cannot stand
properly for any extended amount of time. The foundation is a fundamental
part of a buildings success. I did not create this tradition of ours, it was
made before me, and may carry on long after me, but everything should be
subject to change.
I can remember the details of this clockwork, since we have done
relatively the same thing for a while. First, we arrive and socialize possibly
the most painful part and then we eat the best part, in my opinion. The
meals consist of turkey, macaroni and cheese, dressing, and most typical
Thanksgiving foods which feel wrong to eat at Christmas time. After
eating, we do a white elephant gift exchange.
This remained the same for my whole life up until last year. Last
Christmas, we changed what house we went to, what day we went on, and
the food we ate. Instead of doing this on a Saturday, we moved it one day
back to Sunday. We had turkey and ham sandwiches and cheese dip, rather
than a Thanksgiving feast. We were in a new environment with a new
atmosphere. Instead of just siting and chatting we had a football game
turned on and were all paying attention to the game with moderate
socialization which was more to my liking.
Commented [LA3]: Im not sure thats an inarguable
statement. Like Twitter didnt start as a tradition.
Commented [LA4]: ?
Commented [LA5]: Is this the ritual?
Belk 3

Usually change is unwelcomed by those who have deep rooted
traditions. That was not the case in our situation. The change was needed to
keep the tradition going. The core of the celebration wasnt changed, only
the minute details were. Over the course of my life, we had become lost in
the monotony of our routine. Tradition is not a bad thing, but monotony is.
Without this change there would have been little enthusiasm toward going to
see my family. The new location and context of our meetings will hopefully
continue to breathe new life into our annual festivities. Dare I even say I am
looking forward to the reunion of this year? Probably only the food and
football, but its the thought that counts.
Tradition starts culture, but change keeps it alive. If tradition is the
foundation of culture, then change is the renovation of it. Similar to the
foundation, renovation is important in the life of a building as well. The
building will inevitably collapse without the proper renovation.
Sports, just like culture, are sometimes in need of renovation. The
forward pass in was not implemented in football until the early 1900s. Let
that sink in for a minute. Could you imagine what the National Football
League (NFL) would be like today without it? Before the forward pass was
legal, football was an excessively brutal sport. There were an abundance of
fatalities in the sport season after season. Something had to be done to keep
this sport alive. Without this change, the NFL would not exist today. The
Commented [LA6]: I like where you are starting to go with this
idea about change that happens and revitalizes traditions.
Commented [LA7]: This comes out of nowhere to me, since I
felt like your piece was really about your family as you also
examined the processes of culture. So Im thrown off here.
Belk 4

renovation was essential to the life of football. The forward pass did not start
this great sport, it just kept it alive.
Some people tend to cling to tradition and shun change. We can see
this all throughout history. Some people believe the world will collapse
among other silly fears because they think the new generation will not be
able to keep it going; they think we are incapable. This is not true; we are
no more foolish or bright than the generation before us. Our only fault is in
being different, in changing culture - renovating it. Change will surely come.
You can do nothing to stop it, as it comes in small waves. But we all know
oceans are made of small waves. Each generation will change culture in an
unnoticeable way, and after years and years, we will be able to see it. C.S.
Lewis says it best, Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when
you look back, everything is different...





Commented [LA8]: Your renovation idea is interesting. I
definitely think you have some thinking to do on the concept (with
the connection between tradition and culture in particular), but I
appreciate the deep level of analysis happening here.

As my previous comments probably indicate, your essay losses it a
bit with the football analogy. I guess that early on I was feeling that
this essay was at least equally about your family and culture
processes, but that paragraph threw it off.