DEFINING CULTURE

When sitting thinking about what culture means to me, I find myself at a standstill. How can you define it? To me, culture is like the wind. Something that is there. Something that you can feel, but not something that you can capture. It is both beautiful and mysterious. I turned to the internet for answers but ended up more unsure about it than when I began. Most sources give numerous interpretations of the word, and each place I looked spun it different than the one before. Reading Culture cited several different authors and their individual take on culture. One that I thought really captured the concept well was Andrei Codrescu:

“The purpose of the word “culture” these days is to express something large and unwieldly that nonetheless has some common features. It’s shorthand for atmosphere, only instead of vapor and clouds, it’s made of thoughts, ideas, people, and operating procedures…”

Part of the beauty of culture comes from not having one set definition. Each individual opinion contributes to the depth and meaning surrounding the word.

Cultured, on the other hand, takes on a whole new meaning. An online dictionary gives two definitions of cultured:

1.        educated, polished, and refined

2.        grown under artificial conditions

It is interesting that whereas ‘culture’ has countless definitions, ‘cultured’ has a very specific meaning. When I hear the word ‘cultured’, I think of posh scholars. Lawyers. Politicians. CEOs. It takes on a very pompous tone. I find it funny that by adding one letter, a word that has endless possibilities takes a completely different direction. Agree? Disagree?