When Tradition Compels You

I was on Martha’s Vineyard with some friends recently, and we took a 3-hour van tour of the Island.

We learned about the history, the culture, and a lot about Jaws, as the movie was filmed there back in the mid-’70s.

Our tour guide was a Jaws aficionado.

We learned about jumping off the Jaws bridge.

Technically, it is the American Legion Memorial Bridge and known as the “Big Bridge” to the locals. But it’s also called the Jaws Bridge because it’s the famous one by the beach that separates Nantucket Sound from Sengekontacket Pond. In the movie, a young woman cries out, “The shark! It’s going into the pond!” as children take boating lessons there.

People jump off the bridge every summer. 

It’s a thing. 

And our tour guide said he and his wife jump off it once a year, on September 1. Their anniversary.

This tradition started because over 40 years before, after their wedding reception, his wife said, “Let’s start a new tradition!”

And they jumped off the bridge. 

So, the pair has done it every year since—for over 40 years.

“The jumping is a blast,” he said. “But I'm no spring chicken. It's climbing over the slimy rocks to get my ass out of there that's the challenge.” 

Technically, it’s illegal to jump off the bridge—and sadly, some people have died there because the currents underneath are stronger than they appear. I admired our tour guide’s fortitude, and this custom he and his young wife set years before. Even though one might say he is an old man now, they are still doing it.

Do you have any rituals like that?

Something you do year after year because of a whim you had when you were younger? 

Pat Conroy wrote in the novel The Lords of Discipline, “The human soul can always use a new tradition. Sometimes we require them.” 

Rituals can shape our identity and create a sense of belonging. Every day on their anniversary, I imagine the couple awakens with a sense of excitement for the day and what they know is coming. Perhaps a sense of trepidation too.

I think about how different the world is today than it was back in the ’80s. And how different it must feel to this couple. But they know one thing for sure—they are going off that bridge.

Journalist Deborah Norville once said, “There is a comfort in rituals, and rituals provide a framework for stability when you are trying to find answers.”

A wedding is a good reason for a new ritual.

But so is a day that is confusing or stressful or otherwise boring.

What practices might bind your friends or loved ones together?

What new ritual might you start today?

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