TRADITION!!!!

I feel like father-guy in the movie Fiddler on the Roof. His kids go their own way without his blessings, which turns his world upside down. He lives by a set of rules that govern family traditions, rules that have been in place for generation upon generation and always worked well in his world.

When his kids, one by one, upset his apple cart of safe-world processes, he cries out in anguish, "TRADITION"!!!!! I feel for him, no one wants to be thrust out of their safety zone, watch the old fly away and the new come crashing in. The father-guy's analysis of life is that life can be as unstable as the....... fiddler-guy on the roof. You could lose your footing without a moment's notice. Indeed, the whole movie is about this poor father-guy losing his grip on everything he's known about life. Family, devotion, tradition. What makes the transition from the old to the new is that at times, it seems the whole world is against his struggle to hold on to all that is safe and dear to him. His wife poo-poo's him, his kids disregard his advice and time-tested traditional role, the town gives him the ol' 'oh, now, now, old man' treatment.

In the end he finds a somewhat uncomfortabe albiet unavoidable balance between the new (that he will probably always and for ever struggle with) and maintaining some of his old traditional father-guy role style.

So I take the movie to be a lesson in balance, acceptance and boundries. Change happens. Change is like a hard rain that floods the creek and changes the creek bank. Sometimes the banks change so slowly that it's hardly noticable, other times the rain is a deluge that changes the course of the creek in a way that awes the onlooker.

My creek banks experienced a deluge about 6 months ago when the mother-gal came here to stay. My flow changed from zig to zag in the space of 4 days and 22oo miles. It has been pouring down rain in my life with the inclusion of lightning, thunder, hail, wind and power outages for months.

This week I decided to put on my mad scientist robe and drag out the weather-control macine. I fired up the emotional bulldozer and started re-shaping the flow of my out-of-control creek. I worked for many years to form the path of my creek, and dammit, TRADITION! My creek needs to flow in a manner that I, ME, your's truely, can manage.

Ok, ok, calm down. I'll leave this new curve in the banks but THIS curve needs to be re-worked. Hmmmm,, not thundering so much now.... rain's letting up, a little.... there's still a tornado trying to blow around in my mind, emotions and anxiety run high in me, but it took 6 months to discover the impact of the changes, it will take a while to get the creek back in the banks.

The fiddler-guy on the roof hasn't fallen off, but he is slipping. Good, he's still there, playing his song. Da DA da da da da..... Oh yeah, this can be done, I can do changes and still the fiddler-guy will play my song.

The father-guy in the movie ended up leaving his town, changes drove him, his family and the whole community out. The movie leaves them all saying goodby to the old and promising eachother that tomorrow will be a good one, by the seat of their pants, they will just survive, but will find a way to thrive and enjoy doing it. "Write to me" and "I'll tell you all about my new tailor shop when I get set up in the place when I get there!"

Balance, acceptance, devotion, family, and hope. That's the song the fiddler-guy is playing on the roof.