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A Reflection
Growing up I never took the time to evaluate my life and how it has been shaped by the world around. I grew up in a Christian family that was your typical southern Bible belt household. I knew that Jesus Christ was the savior of the world and everyone that didn’t accept him would be damned eternally. I knew that the most important thing was your faith and my duty was to protect it against all who would reject it. I was taught how to communicate with my elders and peers alike, using Ma’am and Sir appropriately. My family taught me all the things I know about life and even those things that I have discarded have become the foundation of my life today!
Chapter 1 discusses how intercultural communication presents a challenge and in order to be effective in communication we must be able to meet that challenge. The writer could not be more truthful, as the world is becoming more international and global, learning to know your own voice and the echo can make you a viable asset in the ever changing world. Communication and culture are like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you can’t have one without the other. Hall goes on to say, “Culture is communication and communication is culture.” The statement makes much sense to me as culture teaches you how to communicate – what is appropriate or inappropriate - and once you learn the culture you are now able to communicate within the culture you belong. For me this statement is embodied in my formative queer years. Growing up in an environment that was not queer friendly, I wasn’t aware of the whole world that existed for queers, with its own language, nightlife, culture, worldview and various other enriching opportunities. I soon made friends with slightly older queer men who taught me the culture of the life I had embraced. It was such a drastic difference from what I had known the previous 19 years of my life. But it wasn’t a hard task, because it was finally me, and once I learned the culture I was able to communicate using jargon that was escapable to those not of that world. Just as the text states, this culture was a learned behavior, that was transmitted from one generation for the purposes of promoting individual and social survival, adaptation, growth and development. It has interesting to say the least, but now I am communicating my culture daily.
Chapter 2 discusses the deep structure of culture and the roots of reality. This brings up the question of why some people worship at a daily mass, some on Sunday at 10am or some on Saturday afternoon. These are things that happen like clockwork weekly, but we often just accept it as what people do and never question it or look below the surface to find out what motivates the action. But it’s these actions that make up a culture. The collective action of a culture reveals how they deal with issues surrounding God, nature and death. At the root of collective actions is the organization of people, family, community and religion are three influential organizations that guide a culture on how it should behave. It takes a combination of these organizations to define, create, transmit, maintain and reinforce the basic and most crucial elements of every culture and is very crucial in the lives of many today. For me the organization that has had the most influence is religion. Religion was the main rule that guided how I was raised, gave the guidelines for what is important and what I should strive for in order to live a productive life. Religion has given the ability to achieve goals that were out of reach for many before me. Religion has given me an understanding of where I stand in relation to the world and as a result has caused me to have a worldview totally different than my childhood rearing. The experience of a religious organization has been the foundation for any amount of “success” I have experienced and will continue to be that spring board to further achievement.
My community was essential in developing my identity early on in life, helping me to actualize my academic ability. This dubbed me as an intellectual in many circles, even the ones that were restricted to the “grown folk”. The interactions of the religious organization helped me to realize the role that I play in the collective and to identify what I am responsible for doing in order to sustain the legacy of what was handed to me through religion. I am able to see the importance in fostering relationships with those who are like-minded and identify with them based on several qualifiers that make up my cultural identity. Ultimately, my family has been the conduit for my understanding of religion to come to its current state. Through religion my family taught me how I am to function within the family unit and my responsibility as the oldest male child.
Chapter 3 discusses Worldview and Cultural Explanations of Life and Death. Worldview is the way people interpret reality and events, including images of themselves and how they relate to the world around them. Other definitions include, “Worldview is a culture’s orientation toward God, humanity, nature, questions of existence, the universe and cosmos, life, moral and ethical reasoning, suffering, death, and other philosophical issues that influence how its members perceive their world” (Ishii, Cooke, and Klopf). I really connect with the latter definition of worldview. It gives a more in depth understanding and truly outlines all the elements that affect someone’s worldview. When I came to college, my view on life had been shaped by my parent’s religious views and values, four years later I have come into my own worldview and it’s a stark contrast to what my foundation was. I have been able to reflect upon those things that mean the most to me and place them in my own perspective. My revelations are as follows: God is whatever you interpret him to be to you. “He” is not static like religion would have you to believe and is not concerned with all the rules and regulations that religious groups place upon its followers. Humanity has been created to do good in the world and to be responsible with the time they have been given on earth and to fulfill their destiny. We exist because there is a divine purpose that only we can accomplish no one else. We were not created to just live and die, but to contribute to life. The Universe is God and will speak to you if you listen.
There are multiple and competing versions of life. If you ever think that you are right and everyone else is wrong, you are wrong. Just think if the creator made clay figures and place one in a closet, one on the street, one on the window seal, one under the bed and one in the kitchen, they would all be from the creator but their experience would different based on their location. In the end they are still created by the creator and their version of life is authentic as anyone else’s. We must be able to have a double consciousness that allows us to be content with who we are and understand and appreciate the life of our brothers and sisters.
