Thoughts on Traditional Values

I wrote this before the last Presidential election. Apparently politics makes me ponder on traditional values. This is not a polished piece, but more a free-writing session centered loosely on the topic of traditional values. (this part written Nov. 2008)

Thoughts on Traditional Values

So I've been thinking about traditional values. Don't know what I've been thinking about them, per se, but I've been thinking about them. Rob's been into politics lately, which feels related to values. Somehow. I grew up semi-sneering at traditional values. Too cramped and old. And some people with traditional values just don't get it. You know? They're close-minded and stuffy and icky. Then I decided to give them a try. Don't mind them. They're comforting. And in Utah, they're about all you've got if you want to blend in. I like blending in most times. Not that I mind sticking out. ... New age values. They sound so inviting. And in a lot of ways I like some of them. They make you think sometimes. Make you squirm a little, which is good. Traditional values are boring and seem trite and tired.

But somehow it seems to me that if traditional values are still around, there must be something to them. Maybe, even though they're boring, they can also be right. Maybe by sticking to them we can really find some lasting happiness. Like Poor Richard's Almanac and his sayings. Little bits of wisdom that still ring true years and years later. Like Christ in the New Testament teaching people 2000 years later. Amazing, isn't that? But nothing says that just because traditional values are boring, they're wrong. Just because they don't sell, we shouldn't believe in them and support them. Something else dawned on me. People may like to see movies with violence and sex, etc., in them. But they don't like to live like that, generally. Go across America and you're going to find well-adjusted adults living normal, boring, traditional-value-centered lives. Their kids are normal-ish and trying to be good kids. The media we engage in sometimes is less than admirable, and well below what we'd choose for ourselves in our lives. Soap operas aren't real. They aren't what people want. They're just interesting.

Someday someone should write boring books about boring people who also happen to be good, and right, and heroic. And then it should sell.