One Friday, I had a chat with my surgery lecturer about the gastrointestinal effect of an Ukrainian food called горох (garox), history with this food for me dates down to year 2011, a meal after which I became best of friends with my toilet bowl. An experience that did not elude most of my friends I introduced to the food.
After the discussion my lecturer told me consequentially to me telling him that I had stopped consuming this product, that he also disliked some food even from childhood and hence refrained from them, one of which was Onion.As I was there sitting I got lost in my thoughts, the theme of which was TRADITIONS.
Defined by merriam-webster dictionary to be a way of thinking, behaving, ordoing something that has been used by the people in a particular group, family, society, etc., for a long time.It suddenly dawned on me that being the head of his family, there was every possibility that one item called onion may be missing in the meal recipes and hence his children grow up not eating onions, and their children too.This trend can be passed down through generations without a particular generation understanding why.I have a taste of this myself, I just won't eat pork. It has was never served in household I grew up.I'm sure you also can relate to this with your experiences.TRADITION AND INDIVIDUALITYAlbeit I do not discredit the importance of tradition to some people, I do challenge it's grip on our freedom to choose. The question being should I be constrained by the choice of another man who could have chosen otherwise.In simpler terms should I because my father does not like pork not also eat if I'm ever want to? This I call the the problem of individuality.TRADITION AND GENERATIONAL SHIFT.As we well know that as generations come and go so does the changes it brings, hence the debate becomes that of Dogma and Paradigm.Is it not anti-normal if we do not flow with the generational shift, if we hold certain principles in dogmatism?How then do we preserve our familial idiosyncrasy if we do not?
