What’s Right or Wrong?

I grew up in a home of expressions like “do as I say, not as I do”, “children are to be seen and not heard” and “because I said so.” Did you? Through much research it appears that this was a model that many of us were raised on. Our parents did it, theirs did it and now so do we. We are all products of our environment and were taught by our guardians before us. We learn from them and they become the model of the norm.

It reminds me of the story of the young girl that was watching her mother cut the ham and she asks, “mommy, why are you cutting the ham?” The mothers looks at her and says, “because grandma used to cut the ham”. She then asks, “why did grandma cut the ham, mommy?” She said “I don’t know dear, let me call grandma.” “Mom, why did you cut ham?” She answers, “I never had a pot big enough to fit it in.”

My mother did, her mother did it and so I’ll do it too. Today we have bigger ovens and bigger pots so what held weight back then may not make any sense today. It is no longer good enough to continue with rituals of those before us if they no longer serve you.

I have experienced a great deal in my lifetime. Being told to follow rules that never made sense to me. As a young child I was taught through my religion that we were not allowed to drive on Saturday. When I asked why, I was told we were supposed to rest our horses. Now, know that I did not grow up riding a horse and buggy.  My parents told me the car had “horse power” therefore we could not drive it. Now I understand being kind to humanity, but I didn’t think a car needed rest. Back then this insanity of tradition infuriated me. Today I can get a chuckle out of it because I choose to question what is right and wrong for me. You can see I can be somewhat of a rebel, since you may now have figured out what faith I was raised in and I was just talking about the ham. 🙂

I get to make decisions of what it right or wrong based on what I know today to be true. Just because others did it before me doesn’t mean I need to do it too. Tomorrow I give myself the right to change my min, but today I make my own rules. What about you?