The only thing that comes to mind when discussing traditions and food is Thanksgiving. The general perception is we’re eating a symbolic meal and being thankful. The roots of the tradition come from the Settlers and the Native Americans coming together and sharing food, or a meal. I’ll admit I’m a little fuzzy on the details but I believe the Indians were sharing with the Settlers who were having a hard time providing for themselves. This might be where being thankful came into the mix.
The tradition of Thanksgiving includes having a big meal; the specifics of the holiday and the exact foods that are represented seem less important. Each family has modified the tradition to suit their needs. I’m not even sure turkey was the main dish at the original meeting but they’ve been paying the price ever since.
My parents were separated when I was very young and our extended families all lived far enough away to make holiday’s isolated events for me. I would end up with one of my parents and occasionally we would make the drive to one of our relative’s house. Over the years I’ve seen a number of different combinations when it came to foods on the table and routines during dinner but the consistencies have always been; food, family, and being grateful. The message I took away and hopefully passed on to my children was; share a big meal with those you love, and focus on the good things in life.
I now live in Washington with my wife and three daughters. Our next closest family is in California. We are pretty much and island with the occasional visitor, and now we have our own “traditions.” It starts when we make the shopping list and the trip to the grocery store. My wife does the majority of the cooking, always a big turkey and stuffing, and I do the mashed potatoes and fruit salad. There’s a lot more but it seems to magically appear when it’s time to eat. My girls love pumpkin pie and we usually end up with two as our left-overs are a part of the tradition too. They used to make their own but Costco’s pumpkin pies are too good and have been added as the newest member to our traditional dinner.
We put all the food on the table, say grace, and take turns talking about what we’re thankful for. Sometimes it seems a little forced but we do it anyway; an attempt on my part to keep that part of the tradition alive. I hope my kids will continue that part of the tradition with their families. At the end of the day I often wonder if it’s worth it; the effort and expense in having the big meal. And then I reflect on past Thanksgivings and realize it’s the memories that are important, and the act of eating is just the process that brings us together.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Beginners Luck
For my writer's choice piece I chose my first paper which was on identities. The assignment directed the student to chose one of three options and then write their paper, my choice was to come to some conclusion about the relationship between identity and culture. This really was my first paper. I’ve managed not to write anything other than letters since high school, and I can’t really remember writing anything then. When I was reading through my papers and trying to decide which writing it was going to be I was surprised at how much I liked this one. I know I should have been getting progressively better as the quarter went on but this paper is evidence that this isn’t the case. Maybe it was just beginners luck. What I liked most about this paper was how clearly I conveyed my message from beginning to end. No excerpt will relate this to you; you’re just going to have to read it from start to finish.
Why Am I
No one can deny that what we’re born with is part of our identity. Our gender, skin color and our heritage are all part of who we become. But our cultural experiences, during our childhood, have the greatest influence in forming our lifelong identities. With maturity comes the realization that we can make choices to change who we are and how others perceive us. These choices allow us to modify our behavior and personality, therefore modifying our identity. Even though we have a personal choice in how we negotiate our identities, cultural experiences play the major role in forming our core identity.
Culture encompasses the shared ideas, beliefs, practices, traditions, and values of a group and how they connect us together. These areas not only connect us but they define the group as well. The commonness in each group is where we come up with the concept of what “normal” is. When we start talking about cultural experiences we are describing how we interact with these groups and to what effect the dynamics of these interactions have on us. My experience with the fire service provides an example of this. For the most part, firefighters tend to be males with type “A” personalities. Some of the attributes are seen in Table 1-1 in the essay, Alpha Male Syndrome (229). Dominant, confident, aggressive, competitive, determined and having a strong appetite for change are all “Alpha” attributes. People with these attributes are attracted to the fire service because the work will challenge them and they’ll fit in with the group. Once they identify with the group and go through the rigors of being accepted, the group gives them a new identity, brother. The identity that the public gives them as a result of being a part of this group is hero, either way it’s a new identity.
As we develop, there comes a point in life where we become aware of where we fit into the big picture. The age I’m referring to is different for all of us but it’s close to 10 years old and takes us through our high school years. We start to compare ourselves with others and begin to associate with the things we like and avoid those we don’t. These cultural experiences are those interactions in life that point out how we are similar or different and unique, comparatively speaking. The differences that contrast the most with the norm, or that impact us negatively, have the biggest effect on us. When a person fits into a group it’s usually no big deal, it’s taken for granted. Take that same person and reject them from a group and they’ll start to wonder what’s wrong with them and why they don’t fit in. Teenagers are notorious for doing this. We see an example of this in the essay, Masks. In the story, Lucy Grealy is in the 6th grade and is trick-or-treating on Halloween. She is out with friends and feeling more confident than usual because she is wearing a mask, which hides her disfigured face, and at one point remembers thinking, “I hadn’t realized just how meek I’d become, how self conscious I was about my face until now that it was obscured” (67). She identifies herself as meek and self conscious. These identifiers are the result of her negative experiences with her classmates when they made fun of her for being different. She even takes it a step further when she identifies herself as unlovable, “And besides, I thought to myself, the world of love wanted nothing to do with me” (69). And again describing herself as ugly, “….I definitely identified the source of my unhappiness as being ugly” (70). These identifiers were all the result of a young girl and her experiences of being rejected by her culture.
With maturity we realize a large part of our identity is only a reaction to the survival of growing up, and it’s at this point we can start making personal choices to steer our identity in the direction we want it to go. Examples of this might look like: plastic surgery to modify our looks, moving to a different community to better fit in, raising our socio-economic status, or getting an advanced degree. It could be as simple as deciding to change a part of your personality you don’t like. We see this in Gloria Anzaldua’s, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, where she writes, “I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing” (82). Here she decides she will no longer be ashamed of her language based on what other people think, and it’s a decision to change her identity. Whatever the personal choice, it’s a conscious decision to improve, or change, the identity you already have.
In closing it’s important to note that what we’re born with, our cultural experiences and our personal choices all have an impact on our identities. The things that we’re born with are with us forever and usually can’t be changed. Our cultural experiences play a major role when growing up and identify where we fit in. And personal choices allow us to negotiate the identities we form, and give us the freedom to change.
Culture encompasses the shared ideas, beliefs, practices, traditions, and values of a group and how they connect us together. These areas not only connect us but they define the group as well. The commonness in each group is where we come up with the concept of what “normal” is. When we start talking about cultural experiences we are describing how we interact with these groups and to what effect the dynamics of these interactions have on us. My experience with the fire service provides an example of this. For the most part, firefighters tend to be males with type “A” personalities. Some of the attributes are seen in Table 1-1 in the essay, Alpha Male Syndrome (229). Dominant, confident, aggressive, competitive, determined and having a strong appetite for change are all “Alpha” attributes. People with these attributes are attracted to the fire service because the work will challenge them and they’ll fit in with the group. Once they identify with the group and go through the rigors of being accepted, the group gives them a new identity, brother. The identity that the public gives them as a result of being a part of this group is hero, either way it’s a new identity.
As we develop, there comes a point in life where we become aware of where we fit into the big picture. The age I’m referring to is different for all of us but it’s close to 10 years old and takes us through our high school years. We start to compare ourselves with others and begin to associate with the things we like and avoid those we don’t. These cultural experiences are those interactions in life that point out how we are similar or different and unique, comparatively speaking. The differences that contrast the most with the norm, or that impact us negatively, have the biggest effect on us. When a person fits into a group it’s usually no big deal, it’s taken for granted. Take that same person and reject them from a group and they’ll start to wonder what’s wrong with them and why they don’t fit in. Teenagers are notorious for doing this. We see an example of this in the essay, Masks. In the story, Lucy Grealy is in the 6th grade and is trick-or-treating on Halloween. She is out with friends and feeling more confident than usual because she is wearing a mask, which hides her disfigured face, and at one point remembers thinking, “I hadn’t realized just how meek I’d become, how self conscious I was about my face until now that it was obscured” (67). She identifies herself as meek and self conscious. These identifiers are the result of her negative experiences with her classmates when they made fun of her for being different. She even takes it a step further when she identifies herself as unlovable, “And besides, I thought to myself, the world of love wanted nothing to do with me” (69). And again describing herself as ugly, “….I definitely identified the source of my unhappiness as being ugly” (70). These identifiers were all the result of a young girl and her experiences of being rejected by her culture.
With maturity we realize a large part of our identity is only a reaction to the survival of growing up, and it’s at this point we can start making personal choices to steer our identity in the direction we want it to go. Examples of this might look like: plastic surgery to modify our looks, moving to a different community to better fit in, raising our socio-economic status, or getting an advanced degree. It could be as simple as deciding to change a part of your personality you don’t like. We see this in Gloria Anzaldua’s, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, where she writes, “I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing” (82). Here she decides she will no longer be ashamed of her language based on what other people think, and it’s a decision to change her identity. Whatever the personal choice, it’s a conscious decision to improve, or change, the identity you already have.
In closing it’s important to note that what we’re born with, our cultural experiences and our personal choices all have an impact on our identities. The things that we’re born with are with us forever and usually can’t be changed. Our cultural experiences play a major role when growing up and identify where we fit in. And personal choices allow us to negotiate the identities we form, and give us the freedom to change.
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