Tradition: A Blog Off post

Every two weeks, the blogosphere comes alive with something called a Blog Off. A Blog Off is an event where bloggers of every stripe weigh in on the same topic on the same day. The topic for this round of the Blog Off is "What traditions do you keep?"

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I can't hear the word tradition without thinking of Fiddler on the Roof and poor milkman named Tevye. Tevye lived with his wife and five daughters in a shtetl in Czarist Russia at the turn of the last century.

Alfred Molina as Tevye in the 2004 revival of Fiddler on the Roof. via.

In 2004's brilliant revival of The Fiddler on the Roof, Alfred Molina and cast breathe new life into Sheldon Harnick's lyrics and weigh in on the topic of tradition.





Over the course of Fiddler, Tevye and his family deal with changing traditions that come at them from all sides. In a time when marraiges were arranged, Tevye allowed his eldest daughter to marry for love. In a time when Cossacks loyal to the Czar could pillage Jewish shtetls at will and Russian Jews accepted it as their lot, Tevye and his family leave for the United States and the promise of a better life.

The tradition they would have run into upon their arrival in New York was that Jews were summarily excluded from public life in the first part of the 20th Century, but at least they weren't being dragged from their homes in the middle of the night. But they had each other and they would have been free to practice their religions as they saw fit and to make new lives for themselves.

Tradition is one of those terms that gets loaded with a lot of nostalgia and a lot of unnecessary meaning. It's easy to sentimentalize traditions and hard to see them in a broader context. There are times when traditions provide a script to get through awkward moments. There are times when traditions provide a framework for social interaction. And there are times when traditions lock people in place and hold them to the stations where they were born.

Rituals and traditions are fascinating to study in and of themselves, but even more fascinating is watching them evolve over time. And all of them evolve over time. Even though they change, they provide a terrific opportunity to step back and remember the people who came before.

So far as traditions I keep, the first one that springs to mind is that I vote religiously. Despite the current vogue for early voting and mail-in ballots, I stand in line and exercise my right to cast a ballot in person. As distressed as I may be with an election's outcome, I always know that I stood in line and made my voice heard. Over the last ten to 15 years, getting an "I voted" sticker after I cast my ballot has become a new addition to the ritual of voting. So now I get to feel better about my role in a representative democracy and gloat over my participation at the same time.

Second to voting, another tradition I keep that springs to mind involves Christmas Eve. When my youngest brother was old enough to stop believing in Santa Claus, my family started celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve with a late dinner and we'd exchange gifts some time around midnight. I have people over every Christmas Eve and it's a continuation of that tradition my parents introduced. Some time between 11pm and midnight on Christmas Eve I stop for a second and think about the fact that all of my siblings are having a gathering at the same time I am. Each and every one of them is sitting at a table and he or she is surrounded by the people they love. No matter where our lives take us, that one moment of recognition every Christmas Eve reminds me that I came from somewhere.

Finally, just to pick a third tradition I keep, I like to bake pies and my pie baking starts in earnest with the arrival of cooler weather in November. I make my pie crusts from scratch and I follow my grandmother Stewart's recipe. It'd be easier just to buy the pre-made stuff and honestly, I think the only person who can tell that my crusts are the real thing is me. But I don't do it for the recognition. I do it as a way to remember my Gram and to keep her memory alive for another year.

So there you go. Three traditions I keep in my own way. What about you?

As the day goes on, the rest of the participants in today's Blog Off will appear miraculously at the end of this post. Keep checking back and check out everybody's posts. You can follow along in Twitter as well, just look for the hashtag #LetsBlogOff. If you'd like more information about about the Blog Off or if you'd like to see the results of previous Blog Offs, you can find the main website here.

It's Independence Day, so remember and celebrate

It's Independence Day in the United States. It's the day when we commemorate the passage by the Second Continental Congress, Thomas Jefferson's document that's come to be known as the Declaration of Independence.

The actual vote for independence from Britain happened on July 2, 1776 when the Continental Congress voted in favor of a resolution introduced by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia the previous month. After weeks of debate and consensus building, the actual declaration read thus:

Resolved, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

That statement took the war of rebellion against Britain that had been raging for a year and turned it into a war of revolution.

Two days later, the Continental Congress passed what's come to be known as the Declaration of Independence. Here's its text in full, please read it.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

This document was a litany of grievances against King George III, the British Parliament and the British people themselves. It was in essence an open letter to the world that explained why the 13 colonies that would become the United States were declaring their separation from Great Britain. The decision to declare independence from Britain wasn't something that carried with it the unanimous support of their countrymen and the document served too as a way to communicate to everyone in the 13 colonies why they'd embarked on the path they'd started.

It was read in public for the first time on July 8th, 1776 and on July 9th was sent out to be translated into German for the benefit of the German-speaking residents of the colonies.

That document, and everything it represents, is what we commemorate today. No more. No less.

There was a time when it was an accepted tradition to read that document aloud every July 4th. It's a tradition that ought to be brought back. I don't mean some sanctimonious reading from the floor of the House of representatives either. Rather, a full reading of the entire document in homes across the country.

Despite our differences, we have one thing in common, something that ought to bind us together when political movements and pundits seek to tear us apart. As citizens of the United States, we're living out the dreams of a group of great men, sons of the Enlightenment, who sought a radical departure from the way things had always been. What motivated them is spelled out in the document above. Happy Independence Day.

Another YouTube (and Vimeo) kind of Sunday

As I poke around the internet, I'm forever finding cool videos. Here are some highlights I've had bookmarked for a while.

First up are giant bubbles filmed in slo-mo on frigid Stinson Beach. This thing's mesmerizing.









Next up is an ad for an LG vacuum from the UK. Spectacular effects.









Next it's off to India for some of the most spectacular feats of athleticism I've ever seen. Pole gymnastics, who knew?





Then it's off to Prague for the 600 year celebration of their observation tower. This effect is light and video projected onto the facade of the tower and it tells the story of 600 years of not only the tower, but of the Czech people. Fantastic stuff. This is a very tall video and you may have to scroll up and down to follow the action.


The 600 Years from the macula on Vimeo.

And finally, we're off to London for the New Year's 2011 fireworks display. It's the wrong country and the wrong holiday but hey, fireworks are fireworks and this this display beats the pants off of anything I've ever seen. Note to self: Be in London for New Year's 2012.




Enjoy your Sunday.

Oh give me a home where the reindeer roam

Wednesday's Homes section of the New York Times profiled a cottage on the outskirts of Helsinki Finland.

The cottage in question belongs to a husband and wife team of architects and they built their little slice of heaven for €30,000 ($42,000 US).

They were looking for a getaway and rather than build something far from the city, they built this cottage in a recreational park ten minutes from home.

At 150 square feet, they report that there's ample room for the couple and their two kids to relax and unwind. In their design, they took a page from the boat builder's handbook and built in space to hide everything when it's not in use.

The home sports a high-efficiency fireplace and tatami mats that heat automatically when the temperature drops below 40 degrees.

I love the idea of living in a small space, and a small space on the shores of the Baltic sounds like an ideal get away. It does to me at any rate. What do you think? Could you live in a small space?

Adventure abounds: finding the wreck of the Atocha

On September 4th, 1622 a flotilla of 28 Spanish ships left Havana, bound for Spain. The flotilla transported the spoils of empire and in their holds were stacked an untold fortune in gold, silver, emeralds, tobacco and indigo. The day after they left, the flotilla was overtaken by a hurricane as it entered the Florida Straights. By September 6th, eight of the 28 original ships had gone down. Of these eight ships, the largest was the Nuestra Señora de Atocha. The Atocha was the heavily armed, rear ship in the flotilla and it sunk in 55 feet of water. Those 55 feet kept it out of the reach of Spanish salvage efforts that continued for the 60 years that followed her sinking.

In 1976, National Geographic aired a special on PBS about a dreamer in Key West named Mel Fisher and it detailed his quest to find the wreck of the Atocha in the waters between Key West and the Dry Tortugas.

I remember watching that special as a fifth grader and I remember how it caught my imagination on fire. In Wisconsin, an amateur wreck diver named Syd Jones watched the same show on PBS and had an idea. At the time, Jones was an unsatisfied office worker and a month after the special aired he quit his job and drove to Key West to ask for a job on the crew searching for the Atocha.

Syd Jones just published a book that tells the story of his life as a treasure hunter from when he started in 1976 until his team found the wreck in 1985. Those nine years are filled with long periods of low to no pay, love, loss, history, failure and finally, victorious redemption.

Jones' Sweat of the Sun, Tears of the Moon tells the story of Atocha I've been looking for since I watched that PBS special all those years ago. It's the story of what it was like to be a diver and a captain. It's the story of what it's like to find a half a billion dollars worth of silver, gold and emeralds that had lain hidden for nearly 400 years.

As thrilling as the adventure is, what really hooked me was Jones' ability to give me a front row seat to what was going on behind the scenes. He details the conflicts between the dreamer Fisher and his more pragmatic crews. He describes the clash between the need to do archaeology and salvage at the same time. But more than anything, he tells the story of the people behind the triumph and the long, thankless road they followed to get to the ending they knew was there but couldn't see.

My dad gave me a copy of Sweat of the Sun, Tears of the Moon last Friday and I finished its final, 332nd page 48 hours later. I couldn't put it down and I mean that literally. I can't remember a book that's grabbed me so tightly in a very long time. If you're looking for a great vacation read, I can't think of one I'd recommend more highly.