The Wedding That Joins
A story that reminds us that diversity is a good thing and if we changed our thinking to accept diversity our world would be a much more peaceful place. May the wisdom in these words give you thoughts to think about.Short Stories
The Wedding That Joins
Author: Catherine Pulsifer, © 2012
It isn't everyday that people from two different cultures are brought together to form a new union. This happened recently when I attended the wedding of a friend who was being married to a lovely Greek lady and my friend is of English descent.
Now, today, there are numerous unions of families from very different cultures but not all unions have been celebrated and honestly embraced. The wedding photographer captured the families two cultures in photos. This cultural melding occurring during a wedding celebration, though, is a great opportunity to change these feelings, for the better as far as I'm concerned.
I strongly believe that cultures need to join in family relationships that support harmony, knowledge, understanding and a new level of accepting differences. A wedding is a perfect opportunity to get to establish the beginnings of a lifelong relationship, a relationship that will later be shared when grandchildren bless this family.
The important point here is that we all need to develop new understandings and appreciation for others who join of nation, our family, and our communities. It is part of the history of our nation where new arrivals made our country what it is today; a country that is far better off having cultural experiences to share, to assimilate, or to develop stronger communication skills.
A wedding that involves two different cultures is a golden opportunity to meet in a very happy environment and there is no better time to start on a new road to relationships. These relationships established within the happiest of settings lend themselves to greetings of joy where these lead to more in-depth conversations. When you start out within a situation of happiness, it is a lot easier to break the ice, so to speak, and to find out what makes the other person unique, or, at the very least, what makes this person excited, what is humorous to them, or what inspires them.
We are not all the same nor do we want to be. If we were all the same, can you imagine how boring relationships of any kind would be?
I really hope that their children will grow up within both cultures and both languages and inherit and learn the best qualities of each culture. This combination of learning will help further the on-going relationships we all need to have, to be actively involved in accepting others different from ourselves, and celebrating those differences as a positive not a negative.
If we all took the time and embraced a welcoming attitude to greet new arrivals to our nation the way we would welcome a new culture to our family, this nation, this world, would be far better off where understanding and appreciation are elevated to a much higher level and become normal behavior not one of exception.
What does it take to form a union of world citizens where all understand that words of wisdom are part of each culture and that each culture will survive only amidst the further assimilation of other great and beneficial attributes? What is the sole intention of a world where unison is based on economics and not on a lasting peace among nations?
There are also weddings of cultural environment that are now the backbone of civilized society where each culture is respected but at the same time embellishes the call for the preservation of human dignity and the applauding of the rights for all men and women equally.
There has been a lot written in the past about how nations try to adopt different cultures from around the world. There is the view in some countries that a new culture should adopt the ways and mores of its host nation. In this case, the new immigrant is expected to assimilate the ways of its new land and put its own cultural beliefs to the background. In other situations, new immigrants are more than welcome to practice their beliefs as long as they abide by the laws of their adopted nation.
It is not a matter of which national cultural strategy or preference is the best but rather if both methods allow and teach respect for each other in countenance with each preserved life.