Thread by @yhazony

If you're capable of honoring your parents, trusting them, treating their teachings with awe, then you're capable of inheriting the traditions they received from their parents.

If you're not capable of honoring your parents, then you're free. But mostly free to fall hard.

What if your parents had already severed the threads of the tradition, and told you, mostly, to "do what's right for you"? That's the condition of most Western countries today.

You'll have to do it the hard way. You'll have to invest in finding the thread of the tradition again. This is most likely in orthodox religious communities, in their older members, and in the books that they read.

Give them honor. Teach yourself to hold sacred the things they hold sacred. In return, they may still be able to restore to you--your own heritage.

If you are a parent, do not think that you can fufill your responsibilities to your children by telling them to "do what's right for you." That's an evasion. They don't need you for that. They need you to teach them which way is right.

In any case, every child will decide what is right for them. But they can never fully replace the vacuum that has been left in their lives by parents who gave them freedom, and left them to find the way in the darkness, all alone.

A parent is a child's guide for life. Not until they are 18 or 20. For their entire lives. And when they have children of their own, they need their parents--parents who teach them the way--all the more.