Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This week, we’ll talk about a new tradition that my family has started.

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Traditions are a funny thing. Every family has them. Some are the same, like celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Independence Day. Those traditions are the ones that bind communities together. They make our nation part of a shared culture where time almost stops on those days because we know that everywhere around the country families just like us are decorating the tree or shooting off fireworks. Of course, these celebrations include special foods and moments that differ from the rest, but the holiday’s basic outline is the same for everyone.

But other traditions outside America’s shared culture begin to form within your family before you even realize it. You wake up one day and realize this is how your family celebrates good news or mourns a loss. No one held a family meeting or had a formal discussion about it, but it somehow became the norm. Today I became aware that a tradition that started later in life with my sisters has now been passed down to my daughters.

Every year on September 1, my sisters and I watch Gilmore Girls from start to finish. I’m not even sure how this all started because, to my knowledge, we never watched the show when it aired. This is something that started well after I had children.........

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