What is food without seasoning? What is a painting without color? What is music without instruments? What is clothing without textures and patterns? The same question can be asked about being cultured. What do we know about culture? Is having knowledge about ones culture even necessary? The definition of CULTURE is the social behavior and norms found in human societies. The arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.
The very essence of the manifestations of one intellectual achievement should be celebrated. The birth of a culture is thought to be a chain reaction as it took ONE person to spark the flame to create beauty of their unique gifts, callings, skills, cuisine, performing arts, literature and trade to influence a generation in their collective geographic area. One thing that EVERY culture has in common is food and theatrics. Come on, who doesn’t like to eat and who doesn’t like to be entertained? The indigenous people of Native America, Africa, Asia, Europe Latin, India descent and etc., all have those things in common; however, the way its expressed and interpreted may be different from each other. I bet if we decided to break away from our bubble and spend a day with someone who is completely opposite from ourselves, we’ll find out that we have more similarities than none. The influence of culture is GREAT. What would our world be without culture? It will be bland as food is without SALT! Too many times, we as people are too afraid to explore beyond the walls of “me, my four and no more”! This stubbornness has opened up a doorway into the world of ignorance and racism. For instance, racism is ignorance, ignorance of the unknown and we often dislike what we know not of and quite frankly, I’ve been guilty of this myself. But what if we had a true desire to look beyond our reflection in the mirror and see the heart of man WITHOUT conditions? Imagine the impact this could have in our communities, cities, state, nation and the country? What if the walls that we built over time that contributed to our own illiteracy of this subject start to fall down? Then the seeds of compassion will start to grow in our hearts for others. It won’t just be BLACK LIVES MATTER, LGBTQ LIVES MATTER, BLUE LIVES MATTERS, UNBORN LIVES MATTERS, INFANT LIVES MATTERS, WOMEN LIVES MATTERS, MEN LIVES MATTERS but MATTER OF THE HEART MATTERS.
In essence the root of this discrimination is a heart issue. This nation desperately need a heart transformation and the only way to receive one is to become consciously aware that we actually are in need of one. When we allow our hearts to be transformed by love, then it becomes ALL LIVES that MATTERS. In the midst of adversity, in the midst of oppression, in the midst of injustice, one amazing fact about the human spirit, regardless of nationality, religion, gender, social, economic status, is the desire to re-build and to be a part of a community. For instance, the event of 9/11. Many lives were lost due to a callus act of hate and violence but every time this nation had experienced a tragic event, we found a God-given strength within ourselves to come together to re-build and repair. We needed every one from every background, all walks of life to come together in unity to heal as a nation. All the more reason why we can’t do life a part from fellowship and community. There’s power in numbers! But ask yourself, would you cut off your hand because it doesn’t look like your feet? Would you cut off your foot because it doesn’t look you’re your hand? Absolutely not! But that is what we do when we decide in our hearts to shun those who look, act and communicate differently from us.
We have one body made up of many parts and we need all of them in order for it to function properly. That’s the same with being cultured-minded. Being cultured minded is being people minded. Being people minded, is having a true heart. We must collectively become unified in order to function as one in this nation. We can no longer allow the ignorance of the past generations to separate us from our true nature, of being people of light and evolution. When we celebrate culture, we celebrate people and when we celebrate people, we are simply celebrating…… YOU!
So let’s be the grain of SALT and add some flavor to the world! Remember a dish is not a dish without some SALT!
-Connisha R. Jarrett
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