we are on
an oceanliner
called culture
we think
we are
in control
of the direction
but it goes
straight
regardless
of where
we intend
to go
it defines
everything
about us
and we
like humble
passengers
are just along
for the ride
Being Present for the Moment
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Singer, Songwriter and Author from Kyoto, Japan.
Singer, Songwriter and Author from Kyoto, Japan.
An online activist from Bosnia and Herzegovina, based in Sarajevo, standing on the right side of the history - for free Palestine.
A place where I post unscripted, unedited, soulless rants of a insomniac madman
Dennis Mantin is a Toronto-based writer, artist, and filmmaker.
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Off the wall, under the freeway, over the rainbow, nothin' but net.
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Artist by choice, photographer by default, poet by accident.
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L'essenziale è invisibile e agli occhi e al cuore. Beccarlo è pura questione di culo
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Leonard Durso 
better than not having a cultural identity at all…still people have a choice in a more or less border-less world we have now.
I keep trying to respond to your comment but I find I keep rambling on forever which would probably in the end not say what I want to say. So I will just say that one’s culture isn’t so narrowly defined as it once was because of technology and the fact that we are exposed to so much now that was not easily discovered in the past. But how we use that technology and what we choose to be exposed to is still determined in a large part by the culture we grow up in. Whether we want to admit it or not, our character, our basic character, is formed early on and only traumatic events can alter it. And that character is shaped by the culture we are in. Later, if we move about in the world as you seem to be doing and as many who blog seem to be doing, we encounter different stimuli which we react to, but our basic personalities which are formed early on, don’t really change and so our choices, though they seem to be many, really boil down to a few. It’s not destiny we are walking toward or chance that determines which corner we turn, but our values which have been set at an early age. And these are constantly tested as we go along that roadway called life and our characters are fine-tuned in the process, but they are still the basic character we formed in childhood. Which is a direct result of our culture. That doesn’t mean we are closed to things and have no free choice in life because whether we are open-minded or not is also part of the way our culture has affected us. And we are not all affected in the same way by our culture but it does shape us. And now I think I have rambled on long enough to have my cultural upbringing tell me to stop.
Exactly what I was trying to point out early on – we have a choice.
”we think
we are
in control
of the direction
but it goes
straight
regardless
of where
we intend
to go”
If you feel that your culture is depriving you of being a complete individual and stopping you from doing something productive then you must make a choice to be true to yourself. I am not an expert on culture, and I am speaking from the point of view of a person whose race was almost identity-deprived by the western colonization and their culture imposed upon us. Even say literature, we have no vast collection like other countries have because for hundreds of years we were deprived to grow in our own culture. That’s what made me said it is better than not having a culture of one’s own. I hope you take no offense as my comment does not mean to say I disagree with your post, actually I understood what you are trying to point out.
Well it would have been okay if you disagreed. Open dialogue is productive for everyone concerned. I just thought I needed to add more of an explanation. Unfortunately, I ramble on at times. Part of the backlash of all those years as an educator. But I admire you for being brave and curious enough at a young age to go to a foreign country (especially one as rich in not only culture but history, and, of course, food) to absorb all you can. I moved overseas late in life which is a regret but better late than never. And Turkey has a rich history and culture, too, which shares a lot of values with both Greece and Italy. I feel more at home here than I do back in the US (except, of course, for NY and what I remember of California). I look forward to reading more of your cultural adjustment to Italy and I especially liked that post on Italian hand gestures, probably because I identify with it so much.
Thanks! And I am looking forward to more of your posts, too.