Here I am, back in Chicago, this time for a comp day. I’ve been staying with David’s grandparents at their home in Skokie, where I can always expect a bed and a very good meal or two. Do you ever notice how eager elderly relatives are to feed you? I discovered this secret some time ago, which helped me realize why it is such a good thing to visit your grandparents. Grandma Bruce, after all, makes the best cherry pie in the state of Washington.

This morning as I walked by the kitchen, I saw both David’s grandmother and grandfather hard at work preparing lunch. This struck me—even twenty years ago, many men would not necessarily be helping their wives prepare a meal. I know that my grandparents are much the same. Grandpa Bruce is quite good in the kitchen, while Grandpa Rice does the dishes and sweeps the floor even as he complains about “women’s work.”

There is quite a bit of rhetoric today about “tradition,” whether it relates to family values, the church, or other aspects of our lives. Yet tradition simply stems from people who find the most effective ways to adapt to their environment. Tradition is a product of function, really, passed down over generations.

The traditional roles in my grandparents’ households are changing for a variety of reasons—my grandmothers are older and can’t do quite as much anymore without help, my grandfathers are retired and consequently bored, both are simply looking for companionship. Because people are living longer and don’t necessarily have younger family members to take care of their basic needs, too, the elderly must adapt gender roles to fit changing conditions.

It really isn’t that far from the problem young adults face. In a society where science and technology make change the norm, young men and women find that they need to adapt tradition to fit new circumstances. Regardless of our age or gender, we are all trying to figure out this new world and establish new traditions to go with it.

Perhaps one of the most valuable aspects of faith, then, is that even when our understanding of our faith changes with time, God is still there. And with God, one tradition will always remain—that we love God with our whole heart, mind, and spirit, and that we love our neighbor as ourselves.

“To love God with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” --Mark 12:33

Kelsey