"Dead Men's Path" - Chinua Achebe

I didn't like this story when reading it through for the first time. There wasn't anything terribly interesting that grabbed me, or made me really want to continue reading. However, as I looked at it a little more, my interest was piqued slightly.

I've often wondered about this balance of the values of tradition vs. progress. Obviously, we need to pay close attention to both - but when they come head to head in a direct conflict, which would win out? In some cases, the "old ways of doing things" are so very important. The moment we start to forsake remembering our past, we will cease to improve our future. So in that sense, traditions and old ways can be incredibly useful. However, there are definitely times when "the way we've always done it" has lost any real meaning - it's simply become routine, and obsolete. In those cases, progress does need to happen, perhaps even at the expense of tradition.

Then we can look at progress itself. . . if the progress is truly designed to improve the lives of people, and help things to move forward, then it's normally a pretty good idea. But, when things start rolling, many times the excitement about "progress" causes people to become over-zealous, and begin changing things simply for the sake of changing them. The focus becomes change, not improvement. . . and in those cases, we are probably better off just sticking with the old ways (especially if they are effective).

I think nearly everyone would agree with these above claims and beliefs - and yet, the idea of balance is where things start turning grey. I'm probably unusual as a young person, in that I tend to err on the side of tradition, and keeping things the way they are.

I guess the most important thing to do in these type of struggles is to know yourself. You must be constantly evaluating your motives, and allowing your mind to be open to what others think.