A special gift
Now consider this. It’s not just monkeys who don’t get it right. Marriage is the greatest cross-cultural experience we may ever have!
Illustration by Sara Bergman
A certain man wanted to give his wife a special gift on their first anniversary to show how much he loved her and how much he cared about her. Because she was raised in a warm climate and had never driven in snow, he was concerned about her driving their car on the snowy roads in the Midwest town where they had settled. On the morning of their first anniversary, he proudly presented her with his heartfelt gift: A set of snow tires! She burst into tears and left the room sobbing.
Sometimes actions taken with the best intentions are not appreciated. How easy it is to misunderstand another’s needs or what they really want from us!
What creates culture?
- "Culture is the shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing, and responding to the social realities around them." (Lederach, J.P., Planning for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures, 1995, p. 9)
- "A society's culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members." (Goodenough, W., Culture, Language and Society, 2nd Ed. 1981)