What follows pretty much speaks for itself. The only thing I have to add here is that despite the fact that is comes across as a little game of cultural jigsaw, there is a very real message going on here.
Cultures are constantly evolving. They borrow from each other, they morph into one another, they force themselves on each other and they steal from one another. It is all part of the natural rise and fall off ways of life over time. People adopt different ideas, tools and practices and their ways of life evolve as a result. They take what they can from what they see and they make them their own.
Part of what makes any particular culture interesting is the classic melting pot – a meeting of ideas that spawns something new and vibrant. The Renaissance, Rock n Roll and the evolution of Buddhism are all examples of this phenomenon. What this requires more than just the meeting of individuals is the sharing and practical application of information. New ways of thinking, new practices and new ways of relating to other people come together to create something with the potential for greatness – a unique way of life in a moment of time, one that will itself evolve and take on new ideas and practices given time.
What drives this evolution is the desire to create something new; something that may solve certain problems; that creates new opportunities. The metamorphosis may happen organically by chance or it may be guided. More often than not, both at different strengths in different places.
What is interesting about where we in today’s global village, is that we have access to so much information, so many ideas, tools and practices, both historical and contemporary, that we could, quite literally, and quite justifiably, pick and choose in order to build an ever evolving way of life that we could believe in.
I am not talking about sticking up a load of tapas bars, Chinese restaurants and Japanese noodles bars so we don’t have to eat in Micky Dees every night. Nor am I talking about a bunch of worldly suits trying out a bit a meditation on Wednesday afternoons. I am talking about finding what we admire and respect about different aspects of human culture, adopting them and living them in our everyday lives. I am talking about the evolution of new ways of life that encapsulate all that is good about humanity.
If you had a people and a place that dedicated themselves to this idea and this journey, what a wonderful, vibrant and innately human thing it would be.
Full Synopsis here.
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