Tradition

Tradition; this word always reminds me of that wonderful song from Fiddler on the Roof. Poor Tevye railing against the abandonment of tradition, clinging on to the old customs, battling new ideas, new ways of thinking, new ways of behaving. 

The picture of the wax crayons reminds me of a family tradition, a cardboard carton of new Crayola crayons (only 12 when I was little) coupled with a new colouring book and a magic paint book in our Christmas stockings. (I'm not quite old enough for the piece of coal and the satsuma!) the joy of opening the new box, smelling them, colouring carefully until they became blunt and we had to tear the paper to continue using them. They were the first crayons we used at school, pristine and pretty for the first few days but then gradually broken, tattered and much less appealing.

Painting  time, big chunky brushes, pots of bright red, yellow and blue paint, but only if you got to have the first turn! If your go was later on in the session you were left with three pots of indeterminate mucky brown colours. These were and I trust still are traditional rites of passage in reception classes up and down the country.

The glorious, traditional fountain pen (still my favourite writing implement) Another rite of passage in the final year of junior school, putting the pencil to one side and graduating to the school dip pen and browny red coloured ink. (Remind me to tell you a story about my deferred transition to writing in ink!) Blots and drips, scratchy nibs and the joy of blotting paper before finally receiving your first proper fountain pen, with cartridges if you were really posh! I think I had a new fountain pen every Christmas from the age of eleven till I left home to go to college.

The war horse which was the type writer; I remember passing by the Commercial Class (as it was called) and being stunned by the noise of the dozens of fingers stabbing away at the keys. I didn't do typing at school (or domestic science, but that's another story!) but I was allowed to use a typewriter at home, with a grandfather, father and mother who had been or were journalists there were several in the house. 

Our technology was very definitely not high tech, but very low techy techy! We couldn't print off several (hundred!) copies in an instant, though you could do two or three with sheets of copy paper which was blue, very flimsy and very mucky to handle.

Even with all the limitations there were some advantages. Advantages that I miss, once you'd written your pages be it on lined paper with a fountain pen or plain paper on a typewriter you couldn't lose the whole lot by an accidental slip of your pinkie brushing a seemingly innocent key. Transforming your hours of work into a blank screen leaving you broken and traumatised. (I'm speaking form personal experience)

I am I must confess a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to writing, a bit of a dinosaur. I accept the need for technological development and the advantages of laptops, tablets, iPads and the like. I even enjoy some of the benefits and the clever gadgets and gizmos that can improve the look of my writing but at heart I'm a cursive, pen on paper scribe.

When Ben and  I were visiting schools with our creative writing workshops I always told the children that they should take a pencil, biro and paper with them when they had to go to appointments or on car journeys, then, should the unimaginable happen, no wifi, a flat battery and no charger they would still have the means to entertain themselves  and keep themselves busy and amused; even if they only played noughts and crosses!

We cannot deny that we live in a rapidly changing world. Technology moves on and upgrades on a seemingly daily basis. We can't bury our heads in the sand, but neither should we throw the baby out with the bath water.  Churches too must balance the traditional with the fast changing way of 21st century life. As Christians we have to find a way to be still, to be quiet in the midst of perpetual electronic stimulation and constant availability.

There is a place for the trusty pen and paper, to be unplugged from all the demands and intrusions of modern technology, to give ourselves time to think.

What about a traditional family Sunday  from time to time,. listen to some music, sing round the piano, play board games, , paper and pencil games. We must move with the times, but like Tevye we must be ready to defend and fight for those traditions worth keeping.