My 2c. I think part of what makes humanity transcend much of the rest of the animal kingdom is the ability to build on the past through the generations. We do

My 2c. I think part of what makes humanity transcend much of the rest of the animal kingdom is the ability to build on the past through the generations. We do it through oral/written tradition/history, etc. I think these “silly” mythological rituals help bind generations. Generational angst has always been a thing, but I worry that it’s grown worse of late than in the past. But I have no way of quantifiably proving that. I view this idea (generational evolution being the hook that powers our progress) as a basic abstraction of the final verse found at the end of the Old Testament “He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” You can take the rest of the OT myth|doctrine and throw it out or love it; I think this idea stands on its own. The HN community often discusses the future, and we bemoan the lack of forethought for future generations. I think this is important. But I also think sometimes we don’t connect with the past in ways we should. We should learn from our history. We should honor the good those in the past have accomplished. We should cut them some slack, avoid over projecting, and do our best to make the next generational version better. To me, these silly traditions play a part in strengthening those ties in both directions. They may seem irrational in many ways, but the universe has more irrational numbers than rational ones, so I’m ok catering to a little bit of balanced irrationality.