What’s the reason for this?

The couple was barely home from their honeymoon and the young bride wanted to impress her husband with a fine meal, so she set about making a roast with all the trimmings.

When the husband entered the kitchen and saw all  his bride’s busy work, he was impressed. Offering to dice some vegetables, he watched as she prepared the roast. When he observed her cutting off the end of the roast before placing it into the roasting pan, he became curious.

“Why do you cut off the end of the roast?” he asked.

The bride’s happy expression suddenly disappeared.

She thought for a moment, “You know, I really don’t know. I always saw my mother cut off the end of the roast, so I do it that way.”

“Well, why does your mother cut off the end of the roast?” the husband asked.

“I don’t know, but let’s find out,” replied the bride as she wiped her hands and picked up the phone.

A moment later she was explaining to her mother her husband’s question.

“I told him I cut off the end of the roast because I always saw you do that. But what we were wondering was, why do you always cut off the end of the roast?”

A moment of silence followed the call.

Finally, the mother responded, “Well, I always cut off the end of the roast because my mother always cut off the end of the roast. But thinking about it, I have no idea why she did that!”

Determined to get an answer about the odd preparation of the roast, the curious bride called her grandmother and explained how both she and her mother always cut off the end of the roast because the grandmother did so.

“So please tell me, grandmother,” pleaded the bride, “why do you always cut off the end of the roast?”

“Why honey,” answered the grandmother, “I always cut off the end of the roast because the roasts are too big for my roasting pan!”

As the story shows, what was practical for the grandmother was impractical for the following generations. Because they didn’t know why they did what they did, their actions were not only impractical and without purpose, but were wasteful as well.

The moral of the story?

Have a reason for doing what you do, and know why you do what you do the way you do it.

Scotty