Culture Clout

CULTURE. What just came to mind when that word popped up?  A different country?  Perhaps something exotic? But what about your culture? Have you ever thought about your hometown and if it even has “culture”?  Every single place we know–big or small–has its own culture that makes it unique and gives it its own identity.

If you remember from my last post, I discussed the importance of diversity in community culture.  A place should be diverse from others, as well as diverse within itself.  Take Toronto for example.  With over 270  ethnicities and 170 spoken languages, this city definitely deserves its title as the most multicultural city in the world. If you’ve ever been to Toronto, you would have recognized the distinct culture almost immediately.  In fact, its diversity within itself is what makes it distinct. The variety in architecture, food, ethnicities, religion, and people make Toronto Toronto.

Now, I may be biased because I’m from Toronto, but did you catch the Raptor’s history-making win against the Warriors?!(If you had to click on that, you may have been living under a rock.)  That was an all-time high of Torontonian pride.  A place’s culture is very much based on its people and its ability to connect people with one another.   This past basketball season is an embodiment of that concept: people came together to celebrate the Toronto way.  People from Mississauga, Brampton,  and Scarborough gathered at Jurassic Park to watch the game. People of all races ate free McDonald’s fries together in anticipation.  This wasn’t just a game for Toronto–it was game representing all of Canada.  Our city was greatly impacted by this win.  Heck, we even put up a mural of our starting five downtown!

This event was extremely memorable for many, many people.   Why?  Simply because it is our home.  As Lance Hosey outlined in his book,  a “home-cooked” home is especially nourishing.  Embracing a place’s uniqueness strengthens place attachment.  If your heart and people are in a place, there is no way you will forget it.  This ties into a reading by Beatly (mentioned in the previous post) which explores how people are naturally drawn to their place of origin.  Think about it: if you had to do a school project about a place, you would probably choose your hometown because you know it well and you have placed value in it.  You are part of that culture.

Although the concept of “culture” is extremely broad and hard to comprehend, it has a huge effect on a place.  The influence of culture to a place could be historic–like Ancient Greek gods and their personified temples, or contemporary–like the Raptor’s win and subsequent murals.  Either way, I hope you found this post as interesting to read as it was interesting for me to write.  What are some “culture clouts” you’ve been a part of?