Tradition

Karl D. writes:

I just got back from a Jewish funeral and shiva sitting. Only the second one I have attended in many years. There was something quite beautiful and grounding from the religious and traditional aspect. There was a very large turnout and almost everyone who attended, no matter what they did for a living, what their personality dynamics were like, or what political beliefs they held, they all came together under the veil of tradition. They knew all the prayers and customs as well as the reasons behind those customs. It was something to behold and struck a powerful chord with me. If all Americans could get around and behind what she traditionally was up until fifty years ago? If that glue of traditional thought were once again simply a forgone conclusion as it once was? My God, what a wonderful place this would be. And what really hit home was that without the key of that Jewish or Christian belief or morality it simply cannot happen. I always knew this intellectually but never really felt it until now. Any return to a traditional America under the eye of a cold, atheistic materialism is dead on arrival. It simply cannot happen.

P.S. I should add that the deceased individual was one of a now fast dying breed. He fought at the Battle of the Bulge, was part of the Army unit that liberated the Mauthausen concentration camp, and earned a Purple Heart for shrapnel wounds he received in the final days of the battle for Berlin. He was eighty-six years old.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 18, 2012 05:45 PM | Send