Tradition

We have successfully arrived here at Swan Lake Village  in North Ft. Myers which will be our home for the next 3 months. I call it our "winter quarters". We arrived on Saturday and one of the first things I did was take a refreshing dip in the pool. They keep it toasty warm for us old farts (think: not heart stopping). It felt so good after being cold the whole trip down.

Then the rain came and for the past two days we have been socked in. Oh well, at least it isn't snow and I have had time to get to work on my Christmas Cards. I've had to wait until the last minute this year so it was time to grind them out.

OK, after writing my 52nd Christmas card here on Monday afternoon, I figured it was time for a break. So at 6 pm Joanna and I headed to our community center here at Swan Lake for the annual Christmas Caroling. Yes America, there are still places where people actually get together and sing carols. Sounds corny until you give it a try. After all, singing is good for the soul and caroling takes me back to a time of important traditions and community.

Our cultural traditions are rapidly disappearing in this modern age as more and more technology isolates us from each other. It's a fact of life that we are all a part of. The idea of facing somebody and talking eye to eye may become a thing of the past sooner than later. Is this a good thing? I can't believe that it is but I am certainly part of the problem.

It's difficult to list modern American traditions. I guess we should count watching a screen as the new American tradition, but as old ones fade so does our national identity and culture. Going to church, sitting down for family meals, playing board games as a family, making Christmas cookies with the grandkids, using good manners like avoiding the casual use of profanity in public, and doing anything with others in real time are a few that seem to be in jeopardy.

Heck! Certainly sending Christmas cards is an archaic tradition that I am stubbornly clinging to. Who is dumb enough to spend hour after hour writing and then snail mailing card after card? An email wishing my friends a Merry Christmas would be quicker, cheaper and easier.  That's OK, but for me there is something special about receiving a handwritten card. Maybe it's simply all of the effort I put into it that makes the difference. If that makes me a dinosaur I am OK!  (I am careful not to write my cards in cursive.)

I do enjoy texting, which is a new tradition that allows me to keep in close contact with friends and family. Are there other worthwhile new traditions I am missing, like maybe binge watching on streaming media? I am guilty of binging like everyone else,  but most of the new traditions seem isolating to me.

I'll send along some "fight eyes" of Swan Lake Village.