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Our culture starts out our reality in this life. If you grew up on a farm, then farm life is what you know. You learn how to plant crops, and feed and care for animals, and the different preparations that you need to take for the changing seasons. If you grew up in the inner city then you learned which neighbors you could trust and which that you couldn't. Who were the people to avoid on the block, and who you could always walk over and have fun with. You may have learned which bus to take to get somewhere you wanted to go, and where the best shops were. If you grew up in the suburbs then you probably lived in a neighborhood and learned the feel of it, and which neighborhoods were considered "nice" and which were considered "bad". You had to learn locations and street names and how to get around and probably had neighborhood friends, and some in other neighborhoods. That's how we all start out.
The farm boy may feel uncomfortable in the city. The city girl may feel uncomfortable in the country. Suburban life can be a good comprimise for them, but may be too limiting for the farm boy, or too unneighborly for the city girl.
Some people yearn for something different. We've all heard of farm kids moving to the big city to make it big. City kids have moved out to their own little places in the country to breathe free.
Your physical place of birth starts you out in your experiences of the world. The social setting of your birth starts out your opinions of people. If you are born into a family where everyone is well-to-do, and the expectations are that you'll go to college, get a degree and choose a career, then as a child that's what you may expect to do. If you are born into a farming community in Africa where it's still common for older children to care for the younger and help cook, gather water and work with only the lucky ones going to school, then that is what you may expect that you'll grow up and do.
Customs of childrearing are usually passed down. I read a statistic that said that African-Americans, then Irish-Americans are the most likely to use physical punishments. Why do you think that is? How did their parents discipline? How did their grandparents discipline? The last I read was that the Swedes and Norwegians were least likely to use physical punishment. Why do you think that is? Most likely their parents and grandparents did not use it as a discipline choice. Childcare is also a factor. Underdeveloped countries keep the children close by, and the children are expected to grow up fast to be contributers to the household. In more develped countries parents often both work and some kind of childcare is employed. Children are allowed and indulged to be children, and less is expected of them around the house.
Your birth situation also brings underlying values. Your parents have beliefs and values. They may have gleaned some of them from your grandparents. They will try to pass them on to you, whether you agree or not.
Attitudes also come into play. Your parents have certain attitudes about the world situation, religion, politics and relationships. They may have gleaned them from their parents, and will try to pass them on to you.
The psychology of your caretaker effects you greatly in the beginning. We learn to want to be around a happy, positive person and learn to fear an abusive, negative person. That can effect our outlook on the world as a loving and friendly place, or a hostile and abusive place.
The sociopolitical setting of our birth also effects us. Growing up in a free America is different from growing up in the former communist Russia or a dictatorship, or a warlord driven state. The way we view our government can give us a feeling of power over our situation and belief in the system, or the feeling of powerlessness and fear. We may or may not want to bring change and may or may not know how to do so, or have the ability to do so. This will affect our feeling of security in our ability to have an effect on our own decisions in life and our feelings of being safe in our own home.
This all shapes our behavior as children and starts out our attitudes towards life and the things in ours.
It effects our development and our sense of self. What our reality is.
I'm following in the footsteps of Christ, Abraham, Buddha, Mohammed, Gandhi, Mother Theresa and Pope John Paul II, and so many others who want the world to be a loving and compassionate place for all of us. My prayers are for all of us to know such a reality. I'm doing my best with community organizations, volunteering, and donating a percentage of what little I have to charities that do good works.
Please help us out and spread the message of love and compassion so that all of our realities can be good, peaceful ones!
Until next blog!
Love, Angelia
amsc363@cs.com
gtown.healinghouse@gmail.com
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