Tradition for who?

016-Tradition for who?
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

This picture was an experiment, hence the odd looking angles of the 'children', although i am not concerned because it meets my 'pure Art without Craft' specification - in that I could have spent the time improving my craft to get the camera angles 'right', but in doing so would have lost the Art, which is in the message and how i produce that message.

Being born English and living in Poland means that I am surrounded by people, possibly people like you, who are continually trying to strip away elements of me and replace them with 'Polish' elements. I am under pressure, even from the nicest of people to conform, simply because that increases their comfort. What is the problem in accepting people as they are instead of trying to forever ram them into shapes that they do not fit? It is nearly Christmas, and we will have a small pre-Christmas party at the office, where people expect me to either bring some Polish or British Christmas food, the latter for the 'ooh' factor and because many obviously believe that living the British tradition is what I most desire. Why can I not bring something from a third culture or, may i be burnt at the stake for contemplating it, something that is not of the standardised version of any culture's Christmas tradition? Well, I will be bring white bread, a toaster and some marmalade - that is what i want and, since few people here have ever had such a combination, I want to share it with them - and sharing is supposed to be a core element of the Polish Christmas tradition.

The sad fact is that few people even bother to think about the meaning of tradition, and by such a lack hurt people from outside their vision without even understanding they are doing so. What partly makes me me is the ability and care I have in thinking about things, so in the case of the Christmas party if they want to bring what they consider to be traditional then fine, I will be happy for them, but why can they not be happy with me?

The answer is that they have too tightly moulded their tradition - it no longer serves its purpose but instead is a mere passage to oppress more people in the future - and my ego is not so large as to insist that future people have to live by my custom. So what if they do forget all we do now, will there lives be any less for it, or will they indeed have enough people of talent to create new traditions?