Taking the lenses that this class has given me and using them to examine the world around me has lead me to adopt some new working philosophies. I have come to believe that no one is the product of any one culture and that since every culture seems to draw from other cultures I think it’s safe to say that we all possess large amounts of cultural hybridity; though some more than others. Some might debate this hypothesis with me but since culture is so messy and hard to define, almost to the point of being subjective, I doubt that a debate could produce anything more conclusive.

Culture could be as broad as an entire nation’s norms or as minuscule as the way a husband and wife interact with each other from day to day.  If this is true then I, as the son of my mother and father and recipient of the cultural legacies of both their families, am multi-cultural from childhood. If I am a member of a little-league soccer team and after Monday night practice I go to play Dungeons and Dragons with my friends then I am being shaped by the two group’s different and sometimes conflicting, perspectives and norms.

In my own life music has been my primary vehicle for accessing other cultures. I grew up playing metal and punk rock but everything changed for me when a group of black and Latino musicians took me under their wing and taught me a southern style of playing traditional gospel music. They turned me on to a lot of new music and helped me learn how to “break” the rules of my conventional style in order to give way to something that flowed and made people want to dance. Today my way of interpreting chords and music has their DNA that they passed down to me infused in every note. I never would have become the musician I am today without this cultural crosscurrent that I was privileged to take part in.

Culture, how humans choose to interact with the world, the style and character that each of us brings to the table, is one of the best parts of being alive. I’m grateful for the further awareness of other cultures that taking this class has brought me and I intend to continue being a responsible and astute observer of culture for the rest of my life.