Cultural Baggage

By: Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich was worried about her past, well not only her past but her families history. She wanted to know where she came from, she wanted to know what types of traditions had been passed down throughout her family history. she wanted to learn about where she came from. She spent much of her life trying to figure this out and trying to learn about traditions that had once been shared with her family. She even tried to start traditions with her children and start believes that were non existent. Her children knew that she was only trying to force these ideas upon them and that she didn't honestly believe what she was saying. She finally learned that it isn't what she got from her family, but the things that were new and changing that was the tradition of her family. The tradition of her family was try something new, to ask questions, and to learn from the new.

This seems like a very legitimate family tradition. Although it took her a while to become secure about what her family history is she finally learned that it was ok to do new things. She realized that it is ok to change what you do and not follow what other people tell you to do. Although I love traditions and I love doing the same thing every Christmas and Thanksgiving I also have no idea where these traditions came from. We do not have any traditions in my family that date back to past centuries, we don't eat any traditional food that came from one of my ancestors home land and we don't talk about all the different cultures that are mixed up into my family. I know that I am French and German but besides that I have no idea where I am from. My mom always just tells me, "your everything white mixed together." This tells me nothing, I know nothing about the people before me. This is why i can relate to Ehrenreich so well. It makes so much sense that following new ways and making my own decisions and not just doing things because thats the way it's always been done is a good way to live.