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in USA | Society Thanksgiving and Tradition Today is November 24 here in Malaysia. Soon it will be the 24th in the USA. For Americans, that means it will be "Thanksgiving." If you were raised in America, I don't need to tell you what Thanksgiving means, or what the traditions are. But here in Malaysia the word "Thanksgiving" means almost nothing. Maybe they have heard of it from TV, but that is all. Being raised in America, I used to believe it was important to spend Thanksgiving with my "family." The word now brings more pain than comfort to me. I think of my brother in law. He once made a big deal about the importance of "tradition." My brother in law is a "good" person. He is a hard worker. He is "successful" by American, and in fact, by most standards. He is a school teacher, or he was. He is retired now. But he was brainwashed and damaged by the American, Judeo/Christian system. Anyhow, the main thing I wanted to say was it occurs to me that the reason he believed tradition was important was probably because it offered some type of security for him. Then I realized tradition is really just a substitute for security. My brother-in-law's parents were of German descent. That tells you a lot about how he was probably raised. I realize now I never asked him if he were ever hit. But chances are good that he was. As far as I know, he never hit his son or daughter, but chances are very, very good that if he wasn't hit, his father and mother were. My brother in law was probably also punished several or many times when he was young. And surely he saw others around him being punished. For that, all he needed to do was go to school. You can't grow up feeling secure if you are being punished, seeing your friends punished or living in fear that you could and will be punished if you don't do what others tell you to do. So my brother in law grew up insecure to some degree. Tradition, then was a substitute for security for him, or let me say one of the substitutes. Please see my page on substitutes where I have written that "you can never get enough of a substitute." S. Hein -- Tradition, by the way, is very low on my value list xx link |
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