Five

This post concerns American culture. "American culture" in itself is a fascinating thing because we are ultimately the biproduct of the combination of all other cultures mushed together in a 238-year-old melting pot. Within this culture lies some major differences from the rest of the world as a heavily individualistic society.

Death.

Death is unique in America. We fear of talking about it, despite it being an inevitable fact of life. As Morrie even says in the movie Tuesdays with Morrie, "Death ends a life but not a relationship." We repress the memories and concepts of death and dying, whereas in other cultures they still mourn, but seem to accept it for what it is and not ignore it or repress it. We should take a conscious effort to accept death for what it is, and not keep our heads stuck in our work.

Speaking of which, work.

Work is so imperative in American culture that we identify people by "what they do." Whereas in Australia people ask other people "Where have you been?", here in the United States people are defined by what they do to earn a living. Your level of happiness is not a factor.

Love.

It's quite fascinating that a culture whose music is almost entirely based on love feels so repressed to express love to one another. We value boldness, strength, and control of emotions, and more often than not our feelings of love are suppressed under these traits we try so hard to emulate. People misinterpret love as a primarily romantic phenomenon, but Morrie explains that real love is not expressed with your body, but your heart. If we can find a way to express our love more from our heart and not from our body, it is perhaps possible that we find less of a need to express a control of emotions and more of a need to care about one another.

Dependency.

Amurica! We're all about individualism! We thrive on the opportunity to do everything ourselves, for doing something by ourselves means we're responsible and well-off. This is an ironic way to live by, since humans are one of the most dependent creatures on the face of the earth. We need almost nonstop care in the first few years of our lives. In a TED talk by Brene Brown, Ms. Brown recognizes that in an attempt to block out our vulnerability, we often block out other feelings as well. Morrie explains that in the very early and late parts of our life, we need people to take care of us. It is in the middle where we believe that we should be independent, when in fact it's when we need people the most.