A friend commented on my Facebook profile photo, saying I should be more considerate of those living in the cold climates by putting on a jacket or something warm!
My first Christmas in Africa was odd for me. I was hot.
You're not supposed to be hot at Christmas. You're supposed to be inside, enjoying the aromas wafting from the kitchen, drinking hot apple cider and snuggled down inside a blanket or beside the dog.
But that's only part of the picture. That's what we often see on many of the Christmas cards or in the movies. The reality for many people is very different.
Why would you turn on the oven when it's already as hot as an oven in your house because the Summer sun is beating down?! No! Get outside and light the barbie! Grab a cold drink. Wear as little as is practical. Find a shady spot on the hillside and anticipate a cool breeze.
All of that to say that we live in a vastly diverse world and it is only by immersion in to different cultures and hemispheres with sometimes opposite cues or seasons that I have learned not to assume "normal" for some is "normal" for all.
I have a t-shirt that say, "Normal people scare me."
I've also heard it said that "Normal is only a setting on the dryer."
A history professor once said, "Labels say far more about the person applying them than about the one upon whom they are applied." That is true for cultures as well.
Any examples of when you assumed something or read a cultural cue differently than how it was intended? Click COMMENT and join the conversation.
(It's just above freezing in Indiana as I write this and quite toasty in Auckland.)
Most of the Christmas dinners I ate in
Zimbabwe were sadza or rice with meat and gravy.
That used to be normal fare there, but this
Christmas nothing was normal for Zimbabweans.
Zimbabwe were sadza or rice with meat and gravy.
That used to be normal fare there, but this
Christmas nothing was normal for Zimbabweans.
My first Christmas in Africa was odd for me. I was hot.
You're not supposed to be hot at Christmas. You're supposed to be inside, enjoying the aromas wafting from the kitchen, drinking hot apple cider and snuggled down inside a blanket or beside the dog.
But that's only part of the picture. That's what we often see on many of the Christmas cards or in the movies. The reality for many people is very different.
Why would you turn on the oven when it's already as hot as an oven in your house because the Summer sun is beating down?! No! Get outside and light the barbie! Grab a cold drink. Wear as little as is practical. Find a shady spot on the hillside and anticipate a cool breeze.
How exactly does Santa get around without snow or ice for his sleigh?
All of that to say that we live in a vastly diverse world and it is only by immersion in to different cultures and hemispheres with sometimes opposite cues or seasons that I have learned not to assume "normal" for some is "normal" for all.
I have a t-shirt that say, "Normal people scare me."
I've also heard it said that "Normal is only a setting on the dryer."
Odd. Interesting. Wrong. Different. Normal.
A history professor once said, "Labels say far more about the person applying them than about the one upon whom they are applied." That is true for cultures as well.
Any examples of when you assumed something or read a cultural cue differently than how it was intended? Click COMMENT and join the conversation.
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