Cultural Collage

Week #2 - Cultural Collage

What is Culture?

Culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.

The following images serve to define my own culture and illustrate how complex and diverse our individual cultures are.  How we communicate our cultural beliefs, practices and understandings out to the world help define us to others as well as ourselves.

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Most of us associate culture with the practices and traditions we learn from our nationality and race.  Being German and Polish much of my family traditions find their origins from these countries.  When I married my wife who is Nicaraguan, our cultures became intertwined and embodied in our four sons.  Behind our international cultures is the foundations of our shared national American culture, which we are all proud and honored to be a part of.

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Another important element of how our culture is developed and communicated throughout generations is the interactions we have within our families.  My wife Darling and our four sons, Isaac, Zachary, Noah and Jacob live within the "Sharpe" culture.  As with many families, our family culture extends quite significantly.  From the mountains of Nicaragua to the shores of Duluth, MN and Michigan our family culture provides the framework by which we live and interact with each other.

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For many people in the world, their religious beliefs play a large role in the overall picture of their culture and often have significant influence on their daily practices.  As Christians, and members of the Assemblies of God our family culture includes the following of Biblical doctrines and the teachings of Jesus.  An interesting part of my culture is the interactions we have with our extended family members who are not Christian or Christians of other denominations.  Within our extended family exist Catholics, Lutherans and Muslims and while our religious cultures can differ significantly we find common ground and communications through the sharing of our cultures when we get together to celebrate and practice our beliefs.

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Wounded Warrior Project

Having served in the US Army, being a former military member also is an integral part of my overall cultural picture.  In America, the military holds a unique and emphasized place in our national culture which is often quite different from the stereotypes associated with military service in other countries.  Within my family are people who have or currently are serving in the US Army, US Air Force and US Navy.  The pride and honor I associated with the military culture is now being passed on to my oldest son, Isaac, who is serving as an infantryman in the Wisconsin Army National Gard.  Much of what this culture represents to me and my family allows for the other cultural elements of our family, our national and racial origins and religious cultures owe their existence to the service of our military forces and for that I am always grateful.