Re: meeting of minds

Kristian Jensen wrote:

> Diana Slattery wrote:
> -----<snip>-----
> >feelings of homelessness.  how deep does this go?  i often wonder.
> >where are we from, really from, that this can run so deep.  deep
> >time.
>
> I'm not sure my own feelings of homelessness is identical to most
> "normal" people. Like I said, I have no sense of national patriotism
> at all. When I'm in Denmark, there are so many things I miss about
> the Philippines and I begin to get annoyed at Danes and Denmark.
> When I'm in the Philippines, its the opposite. So home is definitely
> not where your parents are from. People have told me that "home is
> where your heart lies and where you want to be buried", but my heart
> lies in both places - the Philippines and Denmark. So where am I
> suppose to be buried? I also get frustrated that Danish law
> disallows dual citizenship for adults.
But do you enjoy both places? Do you miss both places when you're
away? Something I want to reemphasize in my last post about Americans tak=
ing
pride in their heritage is that they, for the most part, also take pride =
in the
collective history that Americans here have.  I can take pride in both my
own family's past, which is not American insofar as they originally came
from Scotland, quite distant from America culturally and geographically,
and in the accomplishments that my family here have done and in the prive=
leges
and duties that all Americans have.  I should point out that this can occ=
ur in
any country -- all cultures, when it comes down to it, are equal in their
value to any one person.  Some may be more influential, and some may
emphasize certain things over other things, but they at base are just the
individual instantiations of one Human Culture.

Important to recognize is that the culture is not the people that make up
the different lands of which you are a member, but it is the common ideas
and values that those people cherish. These you can adopt and take with
you wherever you go, so that you will never truly leave Denmark or the
Phillipines, for their fundamental essence will remain in _you_.

So, as for your personal problem, if people where you live do not
want you to accept either one or the other of your cultures, then you do
not have to listen to them -- you can be strong, and simply reject their
unenlightened views about existence.  No culture holds a monopoly on
virtue, so why not indulge in them all? Become a man not just of this
or that country, but of them all, at once -- this is enlightenment.   Whe=
n
you have recognized this, the worries about where to be buried or
where to live will slip away. Thomas Jefferson said about education
and enlightenment:

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body
and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day".

To become enlightened is to become the highest goal that a man
or woman can be -- it is of inherent worth, to be sought by all in all
their ways.

(Sorry if all this seems bombastic, but I tend to wax lyrical about such
things that are dear to my heart)

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Tom Wier <twier@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

"S=F4=F0 is gecy=FEed / =FE=E6t mihtig God manna
cynes / w=EAold w=EEde-ferh=F0."
 _Beowulf_, ll. 700-702
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