elanya

So, this morning I had three of my wisdom teeth extracted. Yay! I was super loopy when I got home, but now I have napped, whatever was in the IV has worn off, and I have some pretty solid pain meds in me. I was afraid today would be pretty much a lost day, but I think actually that I'm doing okay! I had a good nap and feel sore but otherwise good. So I'm going to try to answer this as an experiment to help me decide if yuletide writing will be a terrible plan :p

So here goes - today, kennesaw asked me:
If I could change one cultural trait about where I live, what would it be? This is a pretty heavy question! First, I'll say that the idea of culture 'traits' can be kinda problematic, and I recognize that. It can birth some pretty problematic stereotypes to characterize a particular group in a specific way, and often this is done in negative ways to demonize entire (usually outsider or minority) groups. Like all stereotypes, the idea of culture traits can be a useful shorthand in some cases, but you can never assume that all individuals must possess the trait in question. I feel a bit like I'm giving an anthropology lecture, so I'll go on to the heart of this exercise.

I think one thing that I would like to change about where I am here, is that I would like for people to be more empathic. I thin that is probably a more universal thing - but more empathy, less judgment. For people to think more about how their action affect other and how they can be construed from other perspectives. People here in Texans can be quite generous in some ways, but sometimes that generosity can come with a catch, or it can be limited in some ways.

I think promoting a culture of empathy would help with that. It would encourage people to really consider on a more emotive level how their decisions affect others. I think it would help the people, but I also think it would help the politics - an increase in empathy would translate, I would hope, to less racism, sexism, and so on. So I think I'm going to stick with that as my answer: if I could change anything, I would want there to be empathy in the place of judgment. And going back to the beginning of the post, I know that there certainly are people where I live who are incredibly empathic and thoughtful - I do wish it was more common, however.

And again - I still have slots open! I have a slot open tomorrow, even, but if no one else fills it I know naryrising will give me a drabble prompt ^-^ On DW|On LJ