Thanks, Pat, for your interesting post but it wasn't Michael Dacre who started talking about being "specific" but me, Michael Harvey. I totally agree with you when you say that narrow prescriptive definitions are merely going to encourage a narrowness of mind inconducive to creative work but I was talking about being specific about what we do rather than what we say we do or even what we say we think we do.
It's hard for me to get a handle on "tradition" in any abstract sense but I could talk endlessly about what it is I actually do (don't worry I won't) In my work with the material I have and the situations I find myself in my focus is always on trying to be "good" rather than "traditional". Tradition bearers have had a huge impact on me and my telling and I'm pretty sure I'm a better storyteller for having heard, met and worked with them but I wouldn't try and generalise that to everyone. Also I have seen some tradition bearers who have given me an object lesson in what not to do, but that didn't make them any less "traditional". If some decree was past that storytellers had to study the telling and stories of tradition bearers, even though that activity is enriching per se, it would only leave us arguing about which were the "right" tradition bearers.
Here in Wales it is said that even the smallest village has two chapels; one to go to and one to refuse to go to!
I'm aware that I maybe muddying the waters but I hope that that will help the clear thinkers amongst us think more clearly.
A final thought...
Jason returned with the Golden Fleece and
moored the Argo. It became a kind of icon and people used to come from
far and wide just to see it long after the great man himself was dead.
With the passage of years bits started to drop off the venerable old vessel,
and as was fitting, they were periodically replaced. Very many years went
passed until eventually it became apparent that not one part of it had
actually been part of the ship that Jason made his voyage in. Now, was
it the Argo, or not ? And if not when did it cease to be it ?