Bringing culture in...
Big thoughts of a small mind.
It is always hard to structure a text. Perhaps it is not as important as people make it out to be. Therefore, it is what it is. This is a text that comes mostly from the heart and partly from the mind.
The individual effort is given. Everyone seems to necessarily live a life of isolated effort. But there is also collective truth in life and living. And that is difficult to point to and pin down.
On top of that there is something called culture. And while the collective effort of a few individuals might be more difficult to understand than an individuals will and effort, it is even more difficult to comprehend what culture might do to both the collective and an individual.
Surely, there is culture between two people too. Perhaps even a singular entity might have a culture, albeit many people have argued that culture cannot exist in individuality. Maybe that's why the influencers try to call it a 'ritual' rather than a 'culture'. Blame it on the social scientists, or the 'social humanists'.
Nevertheless, we can perhaps accept the fact that the more people tacitly agree in both the visible and the invisible; the known and the unknown; the felt and the unfelt; and how to deal with these dichotomies, the higher the chances of a culture being formed. To understand how behaviors and customs come to be established is always tricky and we can only but limit ourselves in seeing it as an intricate play of the mind and heart. Perhaps, this too is an artistic answer, and we should rather rename the 'social scientists' and 'social humanists' as 'social artists'.
At the same time, we also know of individuals who have seemingly gone beyond 'culture'. Not entirely of course, for nobody can completely deny being a part of culture else they become the maniacs and the lunatics, but at least to some extent or degree, these individuals have found their own ways of navigating life and its possibilities. And the more I seem to understand those around me, the more I believe in my felt understanding of this tussle. How much does one fight with culture while simultaneously seeking comfort in it?
And in some ways, perhaps this is exactly where life and its values are negotiated. What is worth living for? How much can one bear? When does one break through? And when does one break down?
Perhaps, and only perhaps, life has meaning, and alongside it beauty too, in these necessary explorations. Naturally, it is unnecessary and pragmatically impossible to delve in these big questions all the time. In much of the moments of life, one delves into these questions not out of effortful choice but through unsought spurts of inspiration. But who would we be without these questions and other bigger ones? And what would life be without a culture to hate but also to embrace?