I had a dream last night..
Okay, so it wasn't a dream. It was just a stream of consciousness that I had while I laid in bed waiting to lose consciousness. I thought of America as a place where people come to escape, to start over, to chase freedom.. But it is also a place of fear.
A place where culture is lost.
Culture is a very interesting thing... I think culture provides identity. A sense of self, and who you are.
We fear different cultures as a cause for bigotry and segregation. Perhaps rightfully so, because we use cultural identity as a funnel with which to judge others.
Yet, we are going to make judgements regardless... That's how we filter information.. And based on these judgements, we offer out our opinions. What is rarely realized, though, is because we must judge as a means of comprehending the information we receive, everything that comes out of our mouths is a projection.
A projection of our selves. Our view of how we fit into the world as we see it...Nothing is certain except that 'nothing is certain'.. Everything is consistently inconsistent and full of hypocritical verisimilitude.
Therefore, those of us who pause to think, inevitably question how to live our lives correctly? (I doubt it to be just me..)
I say.. Embrace culture! Not only your own, but others.. all others. Neglect such terms as jingoism, nationalism and bigotry. These labels cause you to identify and seclude yourself from others. I say rather, identify and embrace! Your identification of yourself and your culture should only be possible through the discovery and understanding of others and their cultures.
How can we define something except through realization of what it's not?
In the same way, how can we define ourselves until we realize, through observation and understanding, what we are not?
Our reality is combined, intertwined, and reliable upon each others' realities..
So.. then.. how can we judge without making judgements?
Shed hate caused by fear..
Lose fear by dropping the 'judge & exclude' mentality, and replacing it with a 'judge & include' mentality...
