What traditions have you not kept that your parents had?
This is a very interesting prompt, because the more I thought about it, the more complex the answer became. I think every generation is brought up by the two generations before them, even if they don’t meet their grandparents. The way your parents brought you up is related to the way that their parents brought them up. Sometimes the children will do the same and sometimes they will do the opposite depending on how much they enjoyed their own family life. Usually, however, they develop a mix of their own traditions and the traditions handed down to them.
In addition to the feelings that the children have about their own upbringing you have to factor in the make up of the family unit. My wife and I were both only children so when we discussed becoming parents the clear line we had was that, barring issues of health which could arise, that we would have more than one to avoid the lonely childhood both of us had. Once we had more than one child our focus was on making sure that we made them the absolute focal point of our lives. This is something that our parents were not encouraged to do by society in the years when children were seen and not heard. For example, every holiday we took while our children were growing up was based on what they needed so holiday camps were in because they were cheap and fully child focused. We did not consider what we wanted until they were a lot older. When we were younger, we were treated like mini adults and expected to go on adult holidays.
I can’t imagine many of my parents generation doing what I did and giving up alcohol when it became a choice between my evening drink and the children being able to go to sports or dance clubs, but the Sunday lunchtime pub visit which my Dad saw as essential finished there and then. Also, Sunday lunch was a roast every single weekend. I am not a huge fan of roast dinner so we have them every month or so.
What tends to happen with festivals like Christmas is that your traditions evolve and are built upon. Father Christmas always came to my bedroom to drop off his presents and he did the same with my children. Christmas dinner has a turkey as its centrepiece as my childhood did, but I prefer to have cold accompaniments.
What really interests me is what happens with our own children and their traditions and approaches to life. They will keep some of our traditions and they will decide on their own. My grandparents would not recognise our traditions in so many ways but they would not recognise the world we live in. We will not recognise the world ourselves in 20 years time if we are still around.
Tradition has its place in terms of setting a benchmark both personal and cultural, but every generation will alter those traditions to suit their society and their place in the world. We can choose what we want to keep and what we get rid of and those traditions will go on changing generation after generation.
Was today typical?
If you had asked me this question a couple of years ago I would have answered ‘Yes’ with no hesitation. I was convinced that every day was the same, or at least they just blended into each other as I worked and commuted day in day out, week in week out. Then I decided to do a couple of things. I decided to finish year round teaching and I decided to start being more present.
Now I notice the differences between the days. They are there in so many ways big and small. This weekend my wife and I went to a play on Saturday and watched the Lionesses retain their title of European Champions. As we were watching the match, my daughter was messaging from Basel having got tickets for the England end. Now that is an extreme example of a lack of typicality, but I can see small differences everywhere and I can make small differences everywhere. The second factor is the important one. Change your route to work, wear a different outfit, cook a different meal. Whatever you do, do it with enthusiasm because in the end you will find that even the typical has its own power. The love of family, the home baking, the music, books or TV you enjoy, all of these can now seem fresh. If you will excuse me I now have to prepare my wife’s packed lunch, which is typical! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
A I Generated Picture
How would you describe yourself to someone?
When I first introduce myself to anyone I tend to give my name and my profession in that order. Some of my recent posts have been about trying to move on from defining myself as a teacher, although that might take some time.
Then, if we become colleagues or acquaintances I will reflect on my roles as husband and father, something that defines me perhaps more deeply than my profession. I have been married for 35 years in September and a father for 32 years in August so in a sense it is hard to think of myself as an individual person. The family unit is absolutely central to my existence.
If we get to me as a person, I would say, quite genuinely, read my blog as almost everything that I love is in there. You will get to know me far better through those articles and, of course, my views, visitors and reach will all increase so it’s a win win!
So there you have it, I am a family man first, a teacher second (even if I introduce myself as that first) and an individual third. For the rest of the details you can read my blog as I write about music, books, TV, plays and my thoughts.
If you could bring back one dinosaur, which one would it be?
A I Generated Picture
Apart from being one of my favourite jokes in the film Airplane, and the dinosaur I was most interested in as a child, the reasons I would bring the Pterodactyl back to life are based on science, human nature and the likelihood of success.
If you decided to bring, for example, the meat eating Tyrannosaurus Rex back to life you would completely wreck the food chain and cause the loss of many existing species. If you decided to bring back the plant eating Diplodocus, perhaps my favourite dinosaur due to Dippy at the Natural History Museum, it would destroy whole forests which are, of course, far less extensive than the forests they roamed in millions of years ago. The Pterodactyl would of course affect the food chain but if we could bring it back in an area with few existing bird species it would help to transform it in a good way.
If either of those big beasts were brought back they would be top of the list for the ‘big game’ hunters who make themselves feel important by slaughtering animals who are doing nothing harmful to them. Mind you, it’s not just those evil individuals who would be looking for a reason to destroy large creatures we brought back. The amount of money dinosaur hide would be worth on the illegal market would be sky high. So, there’s no point bringing back the big dinosaurs because humans are basically not to be trusted when it comes to sharing with their own kind let alone other species. The Pterodactyl, although it would be sadly sought after, would almost certainly not have anything like the same cachet for hunters.
So, that leaves us with the Pterodactyl. Whole colonies could be reintroduced far away from the risk of humans. For example, the National Park in New South Wales has a prehistoric tree called the Wollemi Pine which is protected by complete secrecy as to it’s location. The same could happen with the Pterodactyl until it becomes entrenched within an area. Once that happens tourists with cameras not guns could be allowed to shoot them as they watch them fly overhead from a safe distance as experts tell them about these magnificent creatures.
So, there you have it. We should look forward to seeing the return of the monarch of the skies in the future. I for one will welcome their reappearance.
A I Generated Picture
If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?
If I won two plane tickets my wife and I would head to Scandinavia to finally see the Northern Lights. As you may have seen three days ago my holiday choices are definitely not sun seeking in nature! Seeing the Northern Lights in person has always been a dream of mine, but I have never really felt like I could risk it, because there are no guarantees and I would be so disappointed if I missed out having gone all that way. The two free plane tickets would solve that problem.
I have been very lucky to have travelled as much as I have with my job, living in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia while teaching English to so many students. If I had to stop travelling I would have all those memories of so many places to look back on, so from now on anything else is just the icing on the cake. The Northern Lights would just be the final bit of icing.
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 