lineage

when i first arrived, i was talking to acharya john rockwell - who is leading this month long program - about his trips to atlanta georgia. that’s where i first met him, when i took my refuge vows there and sat in on a sadhana of mahamudra class. turns out his parents live there and that’s why he was teaching in georgia once or twice a year.

someone at the table teased him for only visiting that much, and he explained that they were typical WASPs (white anglo-saxon protestants) and therefore they were really self-sufficient. he chuckled that if one of them got seriously ill he probably wouldn’t hear about it, and if one died he’d probably just get a post card a few weeks later letting him know. those were just a part of WASP culture he mused.

“ah ha!”, I thought. that’s my culture too! my friends have often teased me about how self-sufficient i am and my parents are. someone joked with my father when i was about to leave for college, that i would probably only call once and that’s the last they would hear from me. my father joked back that i probably wouldn’t even call once. but my parents are the same way. i often hear that one has had a serious illness or biopsy after the fact, or as if it was no big deal and i shouldn’t worry or anything. hearing acharya rockwell describe his own family this way made me suddenly feel less weird and instead part of a movement, a culture, that i had never really considered existed. yay, i’m a WASP. (snicker)

but not entirely. i’m more than a third irish, which maybe imparts a communicative side somewhat in conflict with my typical self-sufficient and quiet anglican roots. in fact, if one was raised with a mix of values and social norms, a mix of quiet and loud, polite and gossipy, wouldn’t that lead one to feel conflicted at times? to have conflicting desires to have alone time and also to have socialization? i do feel conflicted often about how much time to spend with friends versus my own space. there are probably many causes and conditions for that. but it’s interesting to consider that some of the different desires in my life have been cultural and from growing up in a blend of cultures.

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