Dinner and T-Shirts

(I want to let everyone know that these answers are out of order. When I was doing the discussion board post, I thought we had to choose two questions from a set of four, but I guess we had to do all of them.)

In Richard Pillsbury's essay "Thoroughly Modern Dining," he talked about the experience of having dinner at home, than at a family restaurant. While I was reading the essay, it reminded me about how back in the day, dining with the family at home was very important, and it was bonding time for the family. Now, it seems like we never have a well-kept schedule to have dinner with the family together because of outside influences. Me, I try to keep up with my dad on trying to hold down the tradition, and I honestly feel bad when I have to miss dinnertime with my family since I like spending time with them. I don't question why my dad finds family dinners so important, but I honestly think that everyone else's busy schedule is what's limiting our established tradition in the household, which makes me sad. "Home cooking, that is, actually preparing a meal--not simply opening a box or thawing a tray--has become a luxury, rather than a necessity" (191). After reading that quote, I couldn't help but feel worse, since my dad spends his time in the kitchen a lot preparing food for the family, when everyone else except me are present when the food is hot and ready.

In a different essay, Jenn Shreve talks about T-Shirts as a memorial for someone that has died. I just found her question "What good is a memorial if it's not lasting?" (250) and I feel that a memorial doesn't have to be lasting to be a good memorial. I think it's more personal to wear a shirt of a loved one that's gone because I feel that the person is still close to me. To think about it, if we were to shun this tradition of wearing memorial t-shirts, I think we should also just shun ourselves for having some kind of tradition since almost everyone would have the same feelings of someone elses tradition.

Our adherence to our own culture's traditions takes precedence than finding our own identity. Sure we are just trying to figure out who we are in our lives, but that doesn't take away from our own family traditions. Sure, we may modify it slightly, but the base of our roots is still there. I can relate to this since I have a lot of family that are practically gangsters, but when they're with home with everyone, they act like everyone else in the family.

Pranks are alright to an extent, but it really depends. If one were to cross the line when it came to a prank, it can seriously cause issues with the relationship between oneself and the person they pranked. Although Jon Stewart's commencement address isn't a prank, people will listen to his address and laugh, but a few years from now, they will be moved. In some cases, that can be like a prank, you can laugh about it when it happens at the moment, but maybe over time, one could get pissed off that it happened.