Hey guys! I'm a long time reader, first time poster. I'm here to talk about culture. About what it is, and what it is not. Feel free to comment, discussion is highly encouraged!

Culture can be described in many ways, depending on who you ask. Some people, the "fancy" ones, will quote Shakespeare and show you pictures of great works of art, language and architecture. Others will simply point at the children across the street on their way to school. And some people will give you the rundown on what the Kardashians did yesterday. These are examples of what many people may describe as culture, and they do so within there rights. Who are we to gainsay this hypothetical stranger who is raving about Twilight in response to your questions about culture?

I believe that all of these responses are accurate examples of culture, (Despite the Kardashian Twilight thing...). Aime Cesaire, a famous french poet and politician, once said "Culture is everything. Culture is the way we dress, the way we carry our heads, the way we walk, the way we tie our ties--it is not only the fact of writing books or building houses." This description parallels my belief about the definition of culture. Culture is the backbone of our society, and therefore lives in everything we do every day.

To be "cultured" has nothing to do with how much Macbeth you remember from school, or how many composers you can name, or how good you are at cooking. That narrow-minded aristocrat malarkey has no place in this blog. To be cultured, one needs only to immersed in their lives and the lives of others. This is almost a default setting for most people. Because culture lives in our thoughts and actions, everyone is cultured.