Emphasis Preaching Journal

Traditions can be held thoughtlessly, like the young woman who argued with other cooks about how to prepare a ham. She insisted that you cut off the end before putting it in the pan. Finally, in order to silence her critics, she phoned her mother to find out why. Her mother then phoned her grandmother to ask why. The grandmother said, "I had a small pan."

Traditions can become garbled, as in the game of "Telephone." You pass a message mouth to ear around the group. By the time it's gone full circle, it's unrecognizable.