Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

When I began to think about what it means to be "cultured", I thought of it as the identity of a whole nation. However, in the United States, we do not have a common identity because besides Native Americans, most of us have blood lines that originated in other countries. The common bond between us comes from our ancestors' bravery in escaping the turmoil of the homeland. 

As Americans, we are both survivors and innovators because we strive to better ourselves, not because we have all the answers to success. It is Clifford Geertz's 1973 explanation of culture in "From Interpretation of Culture" that resonated with me the most because he claims that it is the individual that chooses how to react to their experiences. 

“The concept of culture I espouse…is essentially a semiotic one. Believing, with Max Weber, that man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning.”

The optimism of our ancestors continues to course through our veins today, but do we see the act of building “webs” as an opportunity to make something of ourselves? Our culture, as a nation and as individuals, is defined by the decisions we make. Make them count.