Perpetuity is a choice
On childhood mysteries, church closures, and why there's no such thing as a perpetual-motion institution
One of the hard lessons of adulthood is that we are raised through childhood and adolescence to believe, without much questioning, that certain traditions and institutions matter a lot. Some of this is inevitable, because even young institutions may look old to someone who hasn’t been around very long. Some of it is by design, because adults are often invested in the power of those institutions as tools for raising the young.
■ The shock comes in adulthood, when the realization dawns that things like these matter because people decide that they should matter and take steps to preserve and promote them. The good news is that it’s always possible to establish new traditions and institutions where they are needed, as long as enough people are willing to participate and sustain them.
■ The bad news is that institutional decay can set in quickly if nobody undertakes the efforts required to stop it. That starts with persuading people to care enough to act, oftentimes at some expense of time, energy, money, or other resources.
■ Whether the institution in question is a church, a museum, or a radio station (not to mention thousands of other categories), there is no such thing as inevitable survivability. This goes double for abstract principles like the peaceful transfer of power or the freedom of navigation. Perpetuity is a matter of choice.