Culture Shock

We are all aware that there are different cultures: Spain has a culture, South Africa has a culture, Australia, Japan, Brazil all have their own cultures. There are sub-cultures, the Cultural Revolution and even Boy George had his Culture Club; but have you ever stopped to think about the American culture? If you’re like me, you don’t often think about our own culture. We live it. It’s the way we live, the things we do, the things we buy, the way we eat, it’s instant gratification. Cultures vary across the United States, but many of the essentials are the same.

I don’t give the American culture much thought, until I see it through the eyes of someone visiting from another country. We have friends from England visiting later this week. Hazel and Donno have been in the United States for a week already, experiencing the places and events we have to offer here in Western New York, but mostly they wanted to meet the people. We’re the last stop in a three-family visit and each family will show them different aspects of our little sub-culture right here in and around Ripley.

Americans eat out – a lot. The British tend to eat more meals at home. Americans eat – a lot. Every person from England I’ve spoken with who has visited America has made the same comment: our portion size for meals is huge compared to theirs. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to equate portion size with body size. Americans are notoriously overweight. As a society we eat less fruits and vegetables and consume more meat and fat than most other nations. Our friends went to a McDonald’s their first day here, and commented later on how large the regular hamburger was compared to their burgers from McDonald’s in England.

Americans are known for their mantra, “everything is bigger and better here.” Just ask anybody. We have bigger houses, bigger yards, bigger bodies of water, bigger bugs. You name it; we can find something about our country that is bigger or better than theirs. It’s the innate braggart in us. (Of course, in Texas it’s even bigger still. They were once their own country you know. Just ask ‘em.) We are a nation founded on political and religious malcontents. We built a nation better than the one from which we broke free – or so we think. The pioneer spirit is inherent in our culture. The desire pull up stakes and move on to new adventure is typically American. Not that any of these things are solely American traits, but they seem to be more prevalent here.

Hazel and Donno will be shown Niagara Falls, the largest waterfall by volume; they will visit Lake Erie, the second smallest of the five largest fresh bodies of water in the world. One of the largest dams in the United States east of the Mississippi River, Kinzua Dam, will also be on their agenda, as will Panama Rocks which began forming over 300 million years ago. We’ll do our best to entertain and impress our guests. It’s what we do in America. In a big way.