I really have missed writing a daily article for this blog . . . seems like it's been forever, whereas it's really only been a couple of days. I took some temporary work for a few days, which is a good thing. The "down-side" is that the work is over night, starting at 9:00 pm and going to 6:00 am . . . a shift that I've never liked. Trying to sleep during the day and working during the night has been a difficult transition -- especially after just recovering from the jet-lag from my Philippines trip.
As I'm laying in bed this morning, trying to sleep when my body is screaming "get up", I begin thinking about the Philippines and how I would try to describe its culture. If I was talking to someone who was completely unfamiliar with the Philippines, what things could I describe that would capture the essence of the Filipino culture?
I was a little disappointed with my undergraduate studies in sociology. I really thought we would talk more about different people groups and culture and all of that. We didn't. We talked more about all of the social ills that "pepper" our society. Maybe those are a part of the world's culture, but that wasn't what I had in mind. What I did learn about culture happened when I was in the US Air Force. I received orders for RAF Alconbury, a British base in Cambridgeshire, England. Upon my arrival in the UK, I met with Bill Young, the man I was replacing. He had finished his three-year assignment and was preparing to "rotate" back to the States. For him, it was a bitter-sweet event. He was married to a British woman. He had earned his masters degree at one of the colleges of Cambridge. His heart was in England.
Bill loved to visit Cambridge. As part of my orientation to life in the UK, he took me to one of his favorite pubs there in that ancient city. While we were walking from the "car park" to the pub, I mentioned that it was rather sad to be an American. He said, "Why do you say that?" My response was, that in the US, we don't have any culture. In the UK, just look around you and you can see the culture of the place: thatched roof cottages, quaint little shops along the town road (ones that have been there for hundreds of years), and college students wearing their college "costume" riding their bicycles everywhere. It was so obvious! But in America . . . there was nothing so unique or "cultural".
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| Green street in Cambridge |
Bill disagreed. He said that America was full of culture. I wasn't seeing it because I was too accustomed to those things that represent American culture. He defined culture as "those things that you take for granted." As I reflected upon his definition, I realized that he was right. McDonald's fast food, Pizza Hut deliveries, and driving a car anywhere you need to go are all aspects of the American culture. We have stores that stock anything and everything imaginable. The way we drive . . . the way we don't drive . . . are all part of our culture.
So I had learned an important lesson on how to describe the culture of a place: to look at those things whom the inhabitants take for granted. I wish I could take credit for the definition. Oh well.
Tomorrow (or the next time, whenever that is) I will try to put together a picture of what I think Filipino culture is like . . . an attempt at going inside the Filipino mind-set and determining which things they take for granted the most. My goal is to include a discussion of Filipino culture in my presentations about my experience in the Philippines. But not today . . . sorry, I'm going back to bed.
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