I was talking with someone the other day, and he expressed his frustration with the “younger generations.” He said: “You know – the problem I have is that they have no respect for tradition – for the things we hold so dear.”

After we departed, I thought about it, and I am probably included in that camp. It’s not that I disrespect tradition. Tradition has brought stability to life in a lot of useful ways, marriage, funerals, church on Sundays, holidays, birthday celebrations . . . . It provides scaffolding to an unstructured world.

For me, however, tradition becomes problematic when it becomes the default answer to life’s questions. Marriage is one way to celebrate love for another. Funerals are one way to celebrate the life of another. Church on Sunday is one way to celebrate our spirituality. There are many different ways to express ourselves.

Life provides questions and allows us to create through our answers. But when tradition becomes the answer, creation stops because the questions stop. Creation doesn’t really stop, however, because it can’t. It’s an inherent part of life. It’s like gravity. It can be withheld temporarily, but it will always prevail.

And maybe that’s where the frustration sets in. It’s not that the younger generations disrespect traditional life expressions. It’s that they have chosen to move beyond them. They are using tradition as a springboard for new and different expressions of life. Just like the astronauts did with gravity – to propel them to the moon and beyond.

Timothy Velner is a husband, father, attorney and author living in Minneapolis. You can follow his daily blog – a series of discussions between the worry-self and the present-self at – thespiritualgym.me