Tradition Vs. Progress: Finding The Right Time For Each​

Are you tempted to slink under your covers, pull your cozy blankets over your head, and disappear, given all the lunacy in the world right now? For

Or does the energy running high and hot in your veins urge you to take action, all the time, 100%?

There’s a time for tradition, for stillness, for the cool quiet of soft reflection.

And there’s a time for torchbearing, for shining the light into unknown territory and forging ahead with action.

And now, right now, right this moment, it’s the time for ….. both.

Both tradition and torchbearing have their benefits and weaknesses.

The benefits of tradition include:

• The gentle knowing that comes from repeated traditions, rituals, practices, and routine
• The comfort of the familiar
• The calm and quiet of not having to think much as the way forward is clear (because it’s based on the past)
• The familiar feeling of belonging to the quiet cycles of cultural traditions

Examples of tradition from my cultural corner of the world:

• A decorated tree, stockings, turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie on Christmas day
• Processes in place that support my years of blog writing (hello virtual assistant team – I see and appreciate you!)
• My cherished communities including several groups I’ve founded, such as the “Goddesses” (a group of women who’ve been meeting monthly since 2007) and the Dancing Queens (a diverse group of women I gathered into a WhatsApp group who heed the call about once a month to hit the dance floor)

The benefits of torchbearing:

• The exhilaration that comes from the unknown, from forging something entirely new 
• The delight of experiencing and experimenting
• The balance of play and progress
• The practice of cutting-edge creativity

Examples of torchbearing, again, from my cultural corner of the world:

• Learning a new language – thank you Duolingo for my progress, albeit slow, with learning more French.  Why, oh why does there have to be feminine and masculine versions of objects?! Insert sigh here. 
• Taking a wild leap in 1998 after combining mamahood and employment wasn’t going so well (including breastfeeding on the toilet at work) to become self-employed (best decision ever)
• Deciding back in 2011 to take another wild leap, with unsure employment, with our kids in tow and  a few suitcases, and move to Kenya (which turned out great, for very different reasons, for each one of our little family!)

As we’re thrust into unfamiliar, uncharted territory with the decimation of humanitarian and aid programs, amidst tariffs and the loss of usual diplomatic ties, I urge you to seek solace in both.

In both the comfort and familiarity of tradition AND the energizing, sometimes exhilaration, of torchbearing.

Too much of one isn’t good for the planet, our bodies, or our communities.

Too much tradition, and we get stuck — rigid in our worldviews, unable and unwilling to change. We become sloths. We get bored. You feel it too, right?

Too much torchbearing and we’re apt to throw the baby out with the bathwater – experimenting with no sense of reality or the impact of our actions.  We become wrecking balls.  We leap before we look …. and find, to our dismay, that there’s no water below to catch us.

I don’t know about you, but I’m weary. So weary.  The massive threats to our very humanity constantly tear at my heart.

What’s a person to do?

Find the delicate balance between tradition and torchbearing.

Excuse me while I both bow to some comfortable traditions of mine, such as practicing my French daily, reaching out to loved ones to check on them, AND as I practice torchbearing, such as writing posts like these.

I hope it brings you some balance and some ease.

Go forth, shine that light, AND hunker down and rest on your (healthy) traditions.

Rinse.

Repeat.

Now go on and learn, laugh, and lead

Learn

• Take a beat to think about your current balance of tradition to torchbearing.  Are you happy with the balance, or do you need a bit more of one or the other?

Laugh

• Discover the surprising source of the saying I mentioned above “Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.”

Lead

• Take action by gaining a balance that works for you between tradition and torch-bearing.