I'm Baaaaaack

Over spring break I pretty much took a break from the internet as well. But now I'm back. You can't get rid of me that easily.

I maintain a conspicuous silence regarding the Hunger Games.

ANYWAY, I am in a little disbelief concerning how glad I was to see my professors today. That was a little weird, considering I had one of those infamous 'school dreams' the other night. (Among other weird dreams... one involved Boromir and ping-pong, another had Severus Snape as my art/history/not sure teacher [yes, I know, it can't get any weirder than that], and another involved a dragon that turned into a goat. Welcome to my subconscious. I extend my apologies to anyone who needs brain bleach now.)

Anyway, I would just like to mention that WE LOVE YOU, DR. CHRISTY! Even if UNA apparently can't offer Latin unless the prospective teacher has 18 hours of graduate-level courses in that field, we still love you! Hey, when your teacher goes to Germany over spring break and brings back coloring books and chocolate for you, yeah... I liked him beforehand anyway, so it's not like today changed my mind or anything. He just became even more awesome.

AND I AM THUMBING MY NOSE TO ALL THOSE PEOPLE IN CHEMISTRY WHO DID NOT SHOW UP TWO FRIDAYS AGO! WE BLEW UP STUFF! YOU DIDN'T! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Okay, now that that's out of my system...

The rant for today concerns a shirt I saw a guy wearing. It was black and read in large white letters: "Stop clinging to the corpse of tradition." My first reaction was a mixture of indignation and incredulity. My next reaction was Socratic and I wanted to ask him a few questions: How do you define Tradition? Do you mean all traditions (including the common American tradition of having Christmas trees and exchanging gifts on Dec. 25, for example) or merely some? If so, then what? What do you propose that society offer in lieu of tradition? Are you a chronological snob? (Thank you, G. K. Chesterton!!!)

As the wonderful, estimable Mr. Chesterton pointed out in Orthodoxy, democracy tells us to regard the opinions of all, no matter what station they have. Tradition is merely democracy extended backwards into time. It states that we should regard the opinions of all, no matter if they are our parents. (However uncool you may consider them.) If you do not, you are a chronological snob. Bwahaha. Wonderful logic.

Since I (obviously) did not interview the dude with the offending shirt, I cannot answer the questions I would have had for him. I think he would have said, however, that he was rejecting traditional societal values, and proposing radical change (possibly even anarchic? Who knows) as a new goal for society. However, the problem with working towards change is that it is an impossible goal. Change does not abstract well as a goal. If you set change as your goal, it doesn't work. A goal must be concrete in some fashion, so if you have change for a goal, your goal will consequently be perpetually changing, and thus you will never achieve it. Thus saith Chesterton.

Anyway, good luck, nameless dude with offending t-shirt, on ever achieving your goal. Have fun imagining you are the first person rebelling against tradition and doing something completely novel. In fact, you are conforming to the idea that all youth must be rebellious and non-conforming. I, however, delight in not conforming to non-conformity, and instead... gasp... conforming to conformity, or, to put it plainly, I embrace tradition and all of its logic. It's wonderfully refreshing. It also makes people in my parish think I want to be a nun (*grumbles*), but whatever.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse