VALUE OF TRADITIONS:

Thomas

By Thomas "Mack" Spencer, MUW Class of ‘97

Traditions: those things done at a certain time or place; perhaps with certain people, perhaps not, but recognized as part of the social fabric. Traditions take many forms.

In my family, our Christmas “tradition” for many years was to open presents that morning, have pancakes or waffles for breakfast, cook other dishes and take food to my grandparents’ house Christmas night. That “tradition” mostly endures, though sometimes we change the breakfast menu -- sometimes, we just don’t feel like maple syrup – and since my grandparents have died, we meet at my aunt and uncles, instead.

We joke about our Christmas habits being “tradition,” hence the quotation marks. Actually, these actions are more our custom than our tradition.

The word tradition encompasses much more in its meaning than one family’s short-lived custom. The best, or at least the best-known and best-loved, traditions stretch across time and cultures, pulling people together through their shared experience.

Sociologists Webb, Gore and Ammend have observed that “Every society maintains its culture through various traditions. These customs are the glue that holds culture, society and our families together” They further noted that “traditions have strong feelings associated with them and we dislike it when they are challenged.”

The traditions we observe at the W are worth respecting because they bring us closer together and in one way or another serve to support and sustain the mission of the University.

We began to bond as a class when we learned about the W’s history in orientation classes. We started to build commonality through shared experience as we learned school songs and performed Serenade.

Some of us – particularly those of the female persuasion – bonded further through the traditional songs and ceremonies of social clubs. At the end of our W days, bonding is complete with the shared traditional scramble for a Magnolia Chain blossom.

It is ironic that the women of the W have had so long to create and enjoy their traditions bucked tradition with a capital T.. After all, “traditionally,” women were not deemed fit for higher education.

“A civilization preserves its culture by tradition. The passing-down of customs and beliefs to the next generation is through tradition. There is, essentially, one attribute deciding whether the 'next generation' will embrace the customs or will reject them. That is — the value which the people stand to gain from following the same customs, and therefore the moral and ethical aspects of such customs,” says a posting on the AntiBJP blog.

“W girls” embody the truth of that statement. After soaking in the education they weren’t supposed to need, many have broken into career fields women “traditionally” did not – or were not allowed to – enter. Some of the first female scientists in their fields, doctors, lawyers, even military officers, were W women breaking Tradition.

One of the Western world’s cultural touchstones on traditions – and Tradition – is the musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” in which the milkman Tevye and the other residents of Anatevka are “trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck.” Tradition is the key to survival. And yet …Some traditions remain, and some pass away. In the musical, the traditions of sharing the Sabbath meal and celebrating weddings as a community continue to be cherished, even as the practice of using a matchmaker and marrying within the community starts, ever so slowly, to die away.

The navy uniform of the W girl is gone. Men can, and do, attend the W. The world of careers and community involvement is open much wider than it used to be.

But enough of the traditions and spirit and our W remain to continue tying the members of the Long Blue Line together.

Traditions take time and investment. Their very nature requires a buy-in at some level. They are a critical cultural benchmark of who we are and what we value. Teyve proclaimed a truth that W alums fully appreciate and understand: “Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as…as…as a fiddler on the roof!