In my class at Walden University, we were given this 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.
The three items that I would take to represent my family
culture are:
1.
My Wedding Rings. My engagement ring actually
has a diamond that has been passed down in my husband’s family for generations.
Usually every other generation receives the diamond and puts the diamond into a
new setting to represent that individual. The diamond is from the 1800’s when
my husband’s relatives found a diamond while hiking through Wales. It is
important for my family because it represent my husband’s culture and us together
as a family making a union and joining our two cultures together.
2.
To represent my mother’s side of culture, she is
Italian and German, I would take my great-grandmother’s Christmas ornaments
hand made by her in Italy when she was a girl. They are very special to me
because of how beautiful they are and they are all made with Italian glass and
a hobby that is/was popular in Italy.
3.
To represent my father’s culture, Slovak, I would
take her recipes of food that she wrote out in the “old language”. My family
always makes these dished on special occasions and they are important because
culture is food, and food brings people together.
After that scenario now we had to imagine this:
Your feelings if, upon arrival, you were told that you could
only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items you brought
with you
If I was told I could only keep one thing, I would keep my
wedding rings. They mean so much to my husband’s side of the family, and so
much to me to be accepted into his culture and family traditions. It also would
show the culture and ideals of us joining different cultures together.
In general what I have gained from this exercise was truly
thinking of things that support culture and how we show culture in our everyday
lives. I also feel that today’s generation is such a mix of different cultures,
that sometimes it is hard to represent your own culture or family culture with
just 3 small things.
You truly have a beautiful rich family culture. I too struggled with taking my wedding ring but I assumed I would be able to because I was wearing it, perhaps I assumed to much. This exercise really helped us examine our family cultures and what I saw was that so much of my culture is not represented so much externally but rather internally.
ReplyDeleteThe items you picked were very touching because I felt they did a great job of showing us who you are and gave us a small idea of your family culture. I wish I had items like these to share, but I am trying to build a foundation for my children and grandchildren to pass down over the generations to come. Thank you for sharing a little bit about yourself this week.
ReplyDeleteAbigail,
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine having such a rare ring. You truly have something special and I as you would not part with such an item, if I had one.
I like how you concluded your post and made reference to having to limit the representation of culture to only 3 items. I do not know, had it not been for the help of my mom who I spoke to about this assignment, if I could have narrowed it down to the items I did that simply represent my family culture. It was as not an easy assignment, but I enjoyed it as it taught me more about looking beyond the surface of myself and others.
Hello Abigail,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you had the chance to grow in such a diverse family culture. I agree with you that we are all a mix of cultures. Especially in your United States we are a great melting pot.