Brett Stevens has “pipe meditations,” where, as smoking is now beyond the pale, he gets some good tobacco, and lights up his pipe, sitting by the fire in his philosopher’s chair, with his smoking jacket on, and tells us like it is. Here are some pipe meditations on the meaning of tradition from a pro-northern European perspective:
http://www.amerika.org/politics/pipe-meditations-july-6-2019/
“Pipe tobacco blends represent a different idea. They seek an order which transcends the ages, much as conservatives seek order generally where the Left seeks equality (individualism). You want to be able to smoke what your great-grandfather smoked, and pass it down to your grandson, because we know people and how we like our intoxicants, but in true time-honored form, have chosen the gentlest versions of these and made them excellent, like Royal Yacht. This shows us the nature of tradition. Step one is ego-death; you realize that you are simply a point in time along a long line, and that ultimately none of our concerns here matter that much. This helps, since you stop worrying about whether you got the right car or if your house is the best on the block. The big thing is to be part of something big. After that, you start to see the wisdom in order beyond the individual. You benefit most from a society that is stable and part of a thriving civilization, so that it carries on the things you enjoy and anything good that you do. If you make a stone river bridge in your hometown, it should be there for centuries or longer, as people fix and maintain it, keeping it alive just like the population around it, even as individual stones and humans drop out over time.