Friday, December 5, 2008

Thoughts of Late

Culture is so huge in shaping the way we think about everything! The idea of arranged marriages came up in my Social Psych class, and the girl next to me said "Oh, that would be awful!" as people audibly gasped or squirmed in their seats, wondering aloud how people could really marry for any reason other than love. Just because we don't agree or understand something, doesn't mean the whole world feels as we do. Many of our notions of what is "universally" right or wrong are in reality western and modern ideas.

Yesterday we were watching The Truman Show, and I thought of how this movie would only appeal to an individualistic culture such as ours. Isn't it funny when you have a small stain on your shirt and you're so agitated, worrying that people will notice and think you're a slob, when in reality they're all worrying about their bad hair day or zits or whatever the case may be?

With Christmas approaching, I've started to think about the gift. Why are gifts given? Out of obligation? Out of love? Out of tradition? Do you buy someone a really nice gift so that they'll buy you a nice one the next year? Is it a power trip?

Yep. Just some ideas. This post is probably really run-on-sentence-y and lacks wit and charm, but it is as the title claims: it's what I've been thinking about lately, and it's quite late. 1:48 am. I should go to bed.

1 comment:

Naazju said...

I'm sure you've heard about the Languages of Love? There are five (and I never remember all of them) and I've inherited one of the main ways I express love from my mom: giving physical affirmations of love. I love giving notes, cards, food, trinkets, flowers and, especially, gifts. My mother is always looking for ways to help others (it's not just random gifting; there's usually a need) which makes Christmas and birthdays even more fun (because you don't have to be sneaky when you're giving the gifts!)

Anyway, enough of that. I love that your posts always make me do some introspective thinking. And I love gifting because it makes other people happy and hopefully helps them know they're being thought of and loved.