virgin islands scene

I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.
-- Winston Churchill
 

 

Friday, April 21, 2023

Tradition

You can learn a good bit from your own experience. You can learn vastly more from the experience of others.

Many values, customs and traditions are seen as antiquated, and most are indeed older than anyone can remember. But just because they’re ancient doesn’t mean they’re naive or unsophisticated or worthless.

You’re remarkably more informed today than any person who lived a thousand years ago. But can you really claim to possess more wisdom than the accumulated wisdom of all the people who have lived since that time?

That massive amount of experience-based wisdom has formed and refined the stories and values now considered traditional. It would be the height of arrogance to dismiss those traditions out of hand.

Certainly people in the past were fallible and made plenty of mistakes. That’s precisely why it can be so valuable to consider and understand the truths that still survive from their experiences.

Put in the work to improve upon what has come from the past. But don’t discard the past altogether, for that would be foolish indeed.

— Ralph Marston

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