Tradition!

Tradition! (Writer’s Note – that first word should have been sung out – even if only in your head – akin to Fiddler on the Roof.  As it will reappear, make sure to follow this instruction as it will enhance your enjoyment of this post.  Thank you – the writer). We all have traditions weather the topic is family, food, entertainment, holidays, or singing out 1111 when it is 11:11. Something has taken on enhanced meaning because we have done it before and get some comfort or joy from the act. The behavior has become a tradition.

Today is Friday – (blog and calendar all for one low, low price), and I recently started a tradition. By the way, generally when I think of a tradition, I conjure something that’s been going on for years. The picture is black and white and grainy and includes people who are no longer young. Well, traditions have to start sometime. This tradition is a personal – not shared. The reason I bring this up today is because I am in a quandary: Do I let the tradition go by the wayside, or do I continue it?

I loooove chocolate! Now, it is not the only food I am passionate about, (pizza and peanut butter quickly spring to mind) but it truly holds a special place in my heart.  I am nearly convinced that chocolate can solve most problems – warm, cold, tired, or sad. Chocolate can do it all! It comes in so many different forms.  Magical stuff that chocolate is.

Now back to my tradition. The past few months I have taken to buying a chocolate bar for my ride home from work on Friday. I buy it before the first leg of my journey. The chocolate bar – Kit Kat, Peanut M&M, Snickers, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Hershey’s Chocolate bar – whatever (I’m flexible – any will do) accompanies me on my 35 minute train ride, walk through NY Port Authority, and on to the 164 bus. As I near the end of my bus ride, I take out my chocolate bar and eat it slowly, savoring each bite. It is my good bye to the week’s stresses, and my hello to the weekend. It is divine.

Now, school is over. Summer is not so stressful, and I don’t take the bus and train. Do I need the chocolate? This morning while food shopping, I decided. I will be having my candy bar later today. The tradition must live on through the summer. Tradition!

23 thoughts on “Tradition!

  1. Larry, If I was as thin as you, it wouldnt even be a question. Wait, I am not anywhere near as thin as you and i eat my chocolate. maybe i should stop. But anyway, its not only a tradition but a chazaka (i dont have any idea how to explain this in english terms – closest i can think of is a custom) Who are we to fight traditions and chazakas? Enjoy your chocolate. I had a very stressful week, and it would be very helpful to me if i knew you had chocolate.

  2. I say go for it! You are lucky to be able to eat chocolate. Due to a neurological condition I suffer migraines and one of the triggers is chocolate. As little as one bite and I can be down for up to three days in agony wanting to claw my brain out. Doesn’t stop my wife and girls from eating it constantly and in front of me. So go for it enjoy the little things and the personal things and if chocolate is both then do it!

  3. That’s a tough one since part of the tradition is missing. I don’t know…are you enjoying it as much? I have mine in the morning with my chocolate but now that my kids are home for the summer, I’ve let it go. I don’t want them to find my stash. 🙂

  4. There has to be a summer stress that requires the chocolate. Lawn mowing? Children misbehaving? Think, Larry, think!

  5. LOL!!! You mean other people yell out 1111 at 11:11? I thought only my husband and I did that (as well as any other hour on the clock with the minutes of 11 – don’t ask me why, it is lost in the fog of tradition.)
    As for your chocolate tradition, I think you made the wise decision. It is a tradition after all. Respect the tradition. I sometimes make up traditions out of things that only happened once but I liked and wish to repeat. I really like traditions, what can I say.

    • I really do that. Truthfully, I have not done it so much recently. I think my wife thought i was just too weird.
      Yes mam, respect the tradition I did.
      What traditions have you made up?

  6. Today is Friday and while I do not know if you have carried on the tradition, I feel it is important to do so! Just think, there will be some day during the school year that will have really sucked and on your way home, as you indulge, you can recall a relaxing summer day’s bit of chocolate, and that will make you smile. I carry vacation memories like this – pull them out on a rainy (proverbial) day.

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