THE QUEEN:  By now you've probably heard just about every compliment directed at Queen Elizabeth, who has just died.  But I wonder if we should bypass the comments and examine the meaning of the events we are seeing.

There is a musical play called "Fiddler on the Roof."  Many of you have probably seen it or heard its music.   It has, since its first production in New York in the early 1960s, been a phenomenal success around the world.  Although set in a pre-Holocaust village in the Ukraine, "Fiddler" has developed, because of the way it reaches us, a universal appeal.  When produced in Japan, many Japanese actually thought it had been written about them.

It was created by some of the theater's greatest talents, including the director/choreographer Jerome Robbins.  And each day Robbins would come into the creative meetings and ask, "What is this about?"  The others would come up with a variety of answers, none of which satisfied the very demanding Robbins.  Then, one day, one of the creators answered the question:  "It's about tradition."  And Robbins said, "Write that down." The first song in "Fiddler" is called "Tradition."

What we are seeing in the events surrounding the Queen's death is tradition.  British tradition.  The death of the monarch is part of this tradition, and we will see practices that go back hundreds of years.

Tradition.  It's the idea that makes "Fiddler" so moving, no matter what language you speak.

Tradition is what links the current generation to all those who came before.  It will remind the British of what they're about as a nation.  Without tradition, a country has no culture, no spirit, no memory. 

There are those who mock tradition.  So simplistic, you know.  All those silly songs and uniforms.  There are those in America today who want to tear down our traditions, just as they tore down statues during the violence that accompanied the pandemic.  If we let them do it, we're finished.  And we're letting them do it.

Let us learn from the British during these next two weeks, as Elizabeth is laid to rest.  They will not abandon their traditions.  And we will come to understand the importance of our own traditions.  We had better.

September 8, 2022