My Family Culture
Scenario: A major
catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your
country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will
be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take
refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this
catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final
destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host
country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might
have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one
change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take
three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture. What are the three items you chose?
This is a tough question to
answer since I am not a materialistic person.
My husband and two sons are my important possessions. They are the foundation of who I am, my
beliefs, customs, and culture. When
searching the worldwide web for the definition of culture, a definition posted by
an associate professor on the Texas A&M University people.tamu.edu web-page
caught my attention. It defined culture
as being “the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values,
attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial
relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions
acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual
and group striving” (Choudhury, n.d.). To
me, my family culture is founded on the knowledge, experiences, beliefs, values,
et al. that have been acquired and passed on through the generations. The material objects can always be replaced,
the memories, stories, knowledge, beliefs, et al. are irreplaceable.
My grandparents, aunt, uncle,
and parents have all passed away. I have
some family heirlooms, such as dishes, bibles, jewelry, and trinkets, that have
been past down. They are keepsakes, but
they do not replace the knowledge, experiences, and memories of my family that
I have shared with my sons. They never
met my aunts or uncles and paternal grandparents, and they briefly met my
maternal grandparents that came to visit my parents once a year. They did, however, know my mother and father
and could maintain their memories of their experiences with them, the values
they taught them, and the traditions they shared in their hearts and mind.
I truly had to chose three items
to take with us. I guess one item that I
would choose to take our laptop computer because it is our communication
connection with my siblings, it provides access to digital pictures of family
members (present and past) that have been saved on servers and in the cloud,
and it allows us to recover music, recipes, information, and data that is
important to our family and culture. Another
item would be our family bible. The
bible is a connection to our belief system and religion. Neither my husband nor I were raised as
active members of a church, but we do believe in God and Jesus Christ and the
foundations of our religion as a Methodist and Baptist. We have shared our religion, beliefs, and traditions
with our sons. It may sound wrong, but
we can access the bible online or purchase a new family bible. Our beliefs and traditions are within us, so
the bible may not be an essential item if I had to narrow it down to just one
item. I am struggling to choose a third
item.
To complete this exercise, I
walked around my house opening cabinets, drawers, closets, and just inventorying
our possessions and attempting to prioritize their importance to my family and
to my culture. My overall realization is
everything we own is just stuff, and what is most important to carry on our
tradition, beliefs, knowledge of the past, religion, et al. is my family. I can live anywhere in the world without my material items, just as long as I have my husband and two sons with me.
References:
Choudhury,
Ifte. (n.d.). Culture. Retrieved March 16, 2019 from
Donna,
ReplyDeleteI too had a struggle with my own three items. My first one was the easiest and it is much like your explanation of your laptop. My iPhone is my means of communication with others as well as my memories through pictures as well as music. It is truly and all in one for me. Almost everything else I own are just things that I have and I cart around from move to move but having my family is truly the most important part of my life. We do everything together and I call my siblings at least weekly so I do not need things, I need the people in my life.
ReplyDeleteHi Donna,
I really enjoyed reading your post. I really like how you chose your laptop. I didn’t think of it at all as something I would take with me, but you are so right now a day we can communicate via our laptops. As well you could have your memories at the tip of your fingertips like your photos. I also picked the bible to have something to read and see God’s promises for us. I did have a hard time having to pick only one item. This assignment really made me think of the many people that come from other countries with almost nothing. I truly sensed that feeling of losing the most valuable things with coming to another country. Great post by the way.
Donna,
ReplyDeleteI had a difficult time coming up with three items as well. Like you, my family is my world and I would not need anything but them. I like the idea of taking your laptop and the various uses you could get from having it. I feel the same way about my phone as you do about your laptop. The other day I said to a friend how my phone is my life because it is the main way I communicate with my family and friends. I use it to text, talk and send emails. Plus, I store tons of pictures on it.
Hi Donna. Over the week as I thought about this assignment, I had a rough time coming up with exactly three items as well. I even asked my husband the question as well and he was struggling as well. He basically said the same as you, as far as just having your memories and family. Great post overall. I believe that I will come up with some things soon. Looking forward to more interesting posts.
ReplyDeleteEvelyn O'Briant
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