February 2/3 Over, Wow!

Good Last Few Minutes of the Morning Folks,

The groundhog may have seen his shadow, and there were supposed to be 6 weeks more of winter, but snow wise it has been a "piss poor" one here in Flag. We have the freezing nights, just not much of the white stuff. My hope is that there is still a chance for March, much like 6 years ago when I returned from my 60th birthday XC ski trip to Wyoming. We got very little that year until March, then it was every week. Here's hoping . . .

This morning I have been thinking about the anthropological concepts of Ideal and Real Culture. I am not sure whether these are even current in the field. They were formulated by several different anthropologists during the 1940s & 50s. Margaret Mead, Clyde Kluckhohn and others were proponents. Ideal Culture is what people believe guides their behavior, the rules, the beliefs. While Real Culture has to do with their actually observed behavior. Cultural Anthropologist go to the field to live and study with a group of people (traditionally). Often times actual observed behavior is at odds with that which people say guides it. It is not that people are hypocritical per se, at least not usually consciously. Often the dissonance is found in belief systems, i.e., religion vs. actual behavior. Other aspects of culture, or even most of them in many cultures may have a closer relationship between ideal and real culture. This is often the case in small scale homogeneous groups. In larger, multi-cultural societies this may not be the case, or the dominate culture may try to enforce it's on its minorities.

What has gotten me reflecting on this is the consideration of an individual's life, mine to be specific and how these concepts apply. Maybe even more specifically, how I thought my life would turn-out when I was a lot younger, as a child, and how it has actually turned-out! Granted culture has dictated much of what is expected along the way. In our society socio-economic class, race and ethnicity are filters through which the "larger culture" has determined my "ideal culture." Television and media, and even religion (before I discarded it) played a big part in defining how we thought it "should be." TV shows like "Leave it to Beaver," Father Knows Best,", etc. presented an ideal view of family life as it should be (Ideal culture) . . . at least for white middle-classes. There were no real presentations of other races, except in stereo-types of the period.

I loved all those shows. Too bad my life did not turn out in the manner of those "Rosy" views presented at that time. That "ideal" of our culture crumbled for me with my mother's divorce. This was not her fault and I mean in no way to demean her memory. We had not the knowledge to know what goes on between our parents, only what we saw on TV. Our view of the culture was skewed by what was "supposed to be." Society was beginning to change and my family was at the forefront of it. Only now do I know how much my mother was shunned by neighbors who thought it a scandal to be divorced. Today struggling single mothers, at least in the white community, are not something rare. Children are growing up with that as part of their "real culture."

My real culture was at odds with the ideal and has continued to shape my life. American culture experienced rapid cultural dissonance during the 1960s. These were my "formative" years. My ability to cope with my life in the manner that I do was shaped during that time period. Many of us in that post World War II period grew up with those rapid changes. Maybe a lot of what we see today was going on in earlier time periods but we can only reflect on what we see as ours. So, on this eve of my 66th birthday I think a lot about what was supposed to be as presented to me as a child, and where I've gotten to at this point. It is no where near my childhood conceptions of who I would become.

And so it goes . . .

Movies: As is usually the case February is the doldrums for movie releases. I did see a couple that I found entertaining. Safe House with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds is a Bourne- like international/CIA thriller. The acting is pretty good and the movie moves along well with a lot of action. Big Miracle was a bit of surprisingly nice little movie. It kept my attention and was enjoyable. It chronicled the plight of three whales caught in the ice near Barrow, Alaska during the Regan administration days. This was based on a true story and the cast was very good. It was a good film, not a great one. Chronicles was a different kind of "science fiction" film, not big and overblown. The cast are pretty much no names but did a credible job presenting how three young men come in contact with some supernatural force which changes there bodies and allows them to have supernatural abilities. The film explores the dark side of their evolution into dealing with them. This is not a Superman kind of film; it is more down to earth, so to speak. Lastly, The Grey, with Liam Neeson was appalling in its unrealistic portrayal of wolf behavior. The wolves were mutant like larger than life, and their aggressiveness toward humans uncharacteristic. Had they written the script to make them somehow exposed to radiation and become those mutants it might have had more believability.

That's about it from Northern Arizona as I mark the passing of another year in my life.

Cheers All!