How Many of us Belong to Just One Culture?

JL: We belong to a delicate fusion of cultures, through geography, ancestry and experience. I am Welsh with an eighth English. I live in Wales. I am proud of my Celtic heritage. I also feel part of a ‘hidden disability’ culture. Forced membership has stripped me of being in the healthy young 20 & 30’s culture, traveling culture, working culture, family & childbearing culture...

I exist between worlds, slipping in to one more so than another through years. A transient, dreamlike state. Given the chance to have my own flat after 8 years of homelessness. I am blooming. A flower opening to the Spring sun. Moving from non-existence to being someone.

I feel tolerance to others, whatever faith or background. As long as there is no harm toward another. Life has taught me that our vital source of strength comes from within. It is outside of what culture can define.

Light shines through us burning brightly. World feels the flame. Those who are aware only of our traditions, upbringing or outward shell see only a glimpse. Our truth is deeper. Impression of love remains. Hiraeth.

Hiraeth (Welsh): (n.) masc. The sense of loss that comes from having been separated from one’s home; missing the feeling of being home, of having a place.

Juliette Llewellyn
03.05.08

MM: Just what is a culture nowadays? Most of my ancestors were Celtic, from Wales and Ireland, and in both countries the English invaders passed laws hundreds of years ago with the intention of eliminating our ancient languages and customs, and thereby our cultures.

But we are still here, the relationship has become more peaceful with time, our languages are still spoken and in many ways we are still distinct peoples.

Is a culture what we as individuals are comfortable with? A shared set of standards, customs, way of relating to each other? If so, I switch happily between Welsh and Irish cultures, or my personal subsets of them, without a problem. But in our neighbouring country, England, I often feel a little out of place even though I lived there for many years.

I feel very much more at home in Sweden, probably because I lived there when my children were young and almost all their friends were Swedish. Swedish culture is quite different from anything found in Britain, and whenever I go back there I slot right in and wonder why I left.

Yes, I belong to at least three cultures and my life is richer for it.

And maybe more. There is a growing cultural divide between people who use technology such as the internet and mobile phones and those, often older, who don't, can't or won't. In many ways we are in divergent worlds, even if we live in the same town or the same house.

Some cultural links go across borders. Members of a particular religion, for example, may share a large part of their culture with co-religionists in other countries. Likewise, people who have escaped the clutches of a religion will have much in common when they meet.

And what about corporate cultures, where the individual gives up part of his or her personality in return for money! Or the aid-dependent culture, where war or natural disasters have made the traditional way of life non-viable?

Wow, could go on for ever. For example, the Samí, traditional reindeer herders in northern Scandinavia, maintain their languages and customs while using snowmobiles and helicopters to make herding easier. Are they living in one culture or two, or has the one culture developed by taking what is useful from the neighbours?

Maybe there are some people still living in just one culture, but I'm glad not to have that limitation!

Michael L MacKian
03.05.09
www.moving-finger.blogspot.com

All Written for:

World Press Freedom Day
http://www.1-day.org