Day #751 - Culture and Conformity
Together and Apart
It’s ‘World Culture Day’ at River’s school today, so the children turned up in a wide variety of clothing that represented their culture or heritage. And it was quite a sight, with every colour of the rainbow, every style, floral, geometric, plain and textured. I think there are more than seventy different languages represented in the school, so it really is a global community.
And quite a contrast: normally the School Uniform is intended to bring everyone into one, conforming, look, but today, that rule was reversed.
It was interesting in that it was both a celebration, but also an introduction of difference, representing the tension that we all hold within ourselves. The ways we are together, the ways that we are apart. And with ‘separation’ being an important aspect of our safety: the more we share, the greater our vulnerability.
Use your sixty seconds today simply to consider the artefacts, rituals, rules and behaviours of culture that bring you together, and the things that you leave behind to ‘fit in’.
Fitting in is good, but for each of us it means we both invest, and hold something back.
I hope you have had a great week: welcome to Helen, Robert, Dorrie, David, Ian, Alexandra, and the many others who have joined us in this Community in May. We are a Community in dialogue with our practice, for sixty seconds a day, and you are very welcome in this space.
