Traditions

Today, February 14, 2018, is Valentine's Day.  It also happens to be Ash Wednesday, the first official day of Lent in many Christian traditions.  Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes (in the shape of a cross) on the forehead of worshipers with the words, "Repent, and believe in the Gospel" or, by tradition, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."  While you will find several symbolic references to ashes in both the Old and New Testaments, you will not find (at least I don't think you will find) any mention of placing ashes on the forehead in the shape of a cross anywhere in the Bible.  Placing ashes on the forehead is a beautiful tradition, but one that was started long after the time of Jesus.


Traditions are important - they help form who we are, both as individuals and as groups.  They are a unique part of our culture that collectively bridge the gap between the past and the present, as well as the present and the future.


It seems to me, that one of the ways that new individuals are introduced, oriented, and assimilated to the prevailing group culture is by having these individuals learn (and in many cases, memorize) specific tidbits of information.  I am thinking back to when I was in medical school - there was a time-honored tradition of rounding on Saturday mornings with a certain surgical attending physician (the rounds were known, affectionately as "Dog Rounds") in which the 3rd year medical student had to present each case to the surgical attending without using notes or the medical record.  Our hospital was a tertiary and quarternary surgical referral center, so the patients were fairly complicated and complex.  Most of them had medical and surgical histories that were quite long.  I didn't really understand the point of it then - frankly, I thought it was fairly silly.  After a particularly weak (not my best performance) presentation, the surgical attending "asked" me to come back to present to him later that afternoon, when I was truly ready.  I did - it went fine.  He pulled me aside afterwards and asked me why I thought he was making me present without using notes or any "cheat sheets" in front of me.  He told me that if I spent the time going through and learning the history - even if it was lengthy and complex - that I would be able to talk intelligently and concisely about the patient, even in an emergency situation when I may or may not have notes in front of me.  Okay, fair enough.  Makes sense.  But he also told me that if I spent the time really learning about the patient so well that I could recite the history by rote memory, then I would have invested the time in really, truly understanding the patient and his (in this case) problem.  If I cared enough to memorize the history, I would care enough about the patient and be a better physician.  In other words, traditions lead to culture, which leads to being a part of the group.


In the same way, I recently learned that the United States Naval Academy sends a book called "Reef Points" to al incoming freshmen before their so-called "Plebe Summer" (the summer before the start of their freshman year).  Plebes (that's what the freshmen are called) are required to basically memorize the entire book - they fail to do so at their own peril (not mortal peril, of course, but rather at the risk of getting an earful from one of the upperclass midshipmen).  I recently took a look at a copy of one of the older versions of "Reef Points" - there is a lot of really important information in there (Navy ranks, rules and regulations for students, etc.) as well as seemingly less important information (the history of the Navy, the history of the Naval Academy, etc.).  Again, why would the Academy require the Plebes to memorize all of this?  Traditions lead to culture, which leads to being a part of the group.


Winston Churchill once said, "A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril..."  We all have traditions - they serve a great purpose.  But one final word of caution - Mahendra Chaudhry, the former Prime Minister of Fiji, said, "To hide behind culture or tradition to justify anarchy is a gross insult to the very people whose culture or tradition may be paraded to glorify criminal conduct."  In other words, respect the traditions that respect everyone and forget those that do not.