Conversations over Christmas Ornaments.

As I made Christmas ornaments this afternoon I got a call from L'Bergique. We had a long conversation that covered many topics but what was most interesting to me was what we talked about last. Somehow we got on the subject of the classic Christmas image and what we each think about at Christmas. When I think of Christmas, I imagine the Christmas parade in my hometown with my parents and my sister, the familiar faced man dressed as Santa Claus, the funny little house he sat in next to the huge lighted tree on the courthouse lawn - - no snow, but cold temperatures. He mentioned that we as a culture seem to see Christmas as a holiday centered around snow and ice, cold weather, evergreen trees etc. but he posed the question, "how do people in the tropical regions associated with the U.S. see Christmas?" It's a little absurd for them to expect a sleigh and a man dressed in fur in 85 degree weather with no snow in sight. The idea that we, as a culture, long to be unified in what we think is an interesting one. Are images of snow and a sleigh applicable to Hawaiians and Puerto Ricans?

I think that you do not have to be surrounded by snow or believe in much about Christmas to appreciate the socially accepted images of Christmas time. However I found it interesting, this idea of social normalization - where we as a culture subscribe to an established idea given to us by previous generations and the tweaking of the media.

Conversely, I was also remembering a famous faculty member at FSU, Dr. Madsen. In his class he does an exercise and asks his students to imagine a generic object or idea. Then he asks a few people to describe their imagined idea. He says that if you ask a group to think of an object or idea there will be variance due to the nature that all people are different.

L'Bergique hinted at this but we didn't have the time to flesh it out, so I'll give it to you to mentally chew on:

With these thoughts in mind - the idea of social normalization and the actual lack of it -Could it be argued that there is no concrete idea of a family in America. Each person perceives it in a completely specific way based upon their own experience. Thus the conservative platform for solidifying the American family under the concrete umbrella of a man and a woman is only a psychological agenda to unify the accepted social norm to exclude all types of alternative families. (Single parents, households with grandparents or other family members, homosexual couples, etc.) Should we allow the government to pressure us into an idea of family that they ascribe to when regardless of how the law defines a family, there will always be a wide variance of images people associate with that word/feeling/idea

That was a wild ride, I know, and I didn't do it too much justice - - BUT it is an interesting bunch of thoughts to think on. (Also last night I mentioned to someone that it would be great if I had a mechanism that could trace my trains of thought so that I could figure out how I arrive at the places I do...) Happy thinking!

Love to you all

-AA