By James L. Sauer. But Mommy,” little Jennifer asked, “why do you cut the end off the roast you’re going to cook?” Carol Henderson looked down at her seven year old daughter. The family was going to have a feast today for the reunion. And just as she did whenever she cooked a roast she trimmed the end, and put the remainder along its side.

“I honestly don’t know; I do it because my mom did. Go ask Gramma. She’s right out on the porch.”

Jennifer skipped out and asked Gramma.

“That’s a good question, dear. I don’t rightly know. I always just did. Your great-gramma always did. Let’s ask her.” Leaning over to the ninety-five year old woman, Gramma Gert asked the question about the roast.

“That’s easy, Gert. I had to cut the roast because my pan wasn’t big enough.”

Not all tradition has such a silly origin. But all tradition has the same method; we do things as we do because that is the way we have been taught to do it.

Tradition Defined:

“Tradition may be explained as an extension of the franchise,” said mystery writer and Christian apologist G. K. Chesterton. “Tradition means giving the vote to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oli