Questioning our culture
It comes naturally to me to question the norms of culture. Looking back, I think it's my mother's influence - she was described by many as "weltfremd": a stranger to the world. She lived for her passions (music), never much concerned with the realities of life like money, practicalities, logistics.
As a teenager, of course, my default response to this was to be as practical as could be: I chose to do a business degree, not because I'm passionate about business but because practically that would allow me to do a variety of things, to make an income. But something of her attitude certainly stuck. Even as a child, I took a certain pleasure in going against the flow, of doing the opposite of what peer pressure would have dictated (aged 12-13 for example I wore pretty much the same clothes, a drab grey/black baggy style, every day no matter what, when all the girls around me had nothing but fashion on their minds)... and to this day, if something is a popular fad I will automatically default to staying away from it.
So, I question culture. I ask why. And as a result, my life looks in many ways different; some big ways, some small...
- Why do we eat and harm animals for pleasure? Do I want to do this? No; so we're vegan.
- Why do we send our kids to school, is that the best option? What are the alternatives, what are the pros and cons? So we're home educating them.
- Do we need a TV, is that what we want to spend our time together doing? Yes/No; we're not screen free (another fad!) because there are valuable programmes particularly for the kids - in German, so they hear it frequently - but we make conscious choices.
- What do we really want out of life, is it a bigger house, bigger paycheck, bigger car? No; we want to live and be together, so we're actively looking to get out of the rat race and we're making the tough choices needed every day to enable me to not have to work and be with the kids.
- And the biggest question of all, why are we alive? What is life all about? We have found that Christianity offers the answers, and backs them up with both fact and experience; so we follow Jesus.
I'm sure I have blind spots, they're unavoidable... but if and when I become aware, I always question.