Tag Archives: culture

BOOK: “Bruce Springsteen’s America” ed. by Robert Coles

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Bruce Springsteen's America: The People Listening, A Poet SingingBruce Springsteen’s America: The People Listening, A Poet Singing by Robert Coles
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher Site

This book assembles ten reflections upon the role that Bruce Springsteen’s songs have played in the lives and thoughts of everyday Americans. It’s presented as the views of Harvard Psychiatrist and Pulitzer Prize winner, Robert Coles, but while Coles contributed both front- and back-matter as well as editing, the bulk of the book consists of the thoughts of a diverse assemblage of Americans — a lawyer, a teacher, a police officer, a grandmother, a student, a salesman, etc.

The degree to which Bruce Springsteen’s music is central to the book varies both in Cole’s contributions and in those of his contributors. Sometimes, it’s heavily about those songs, but other times it drifts into territory in which Springsteen seems to have little relevance. That’s okay… unless one bought the book primarily to read about Springsteen’s cultural influence, and one might easily be forgiven for thinking that’s the book one was getting.

Few, if any, musicians have images more intertwined with what it means to be American than Bruce Springsteen. This is, therefore, an interesting topic, though it may have been more interesting with a bit more focus.

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BOOK: “Tribe” by Sebastian Junger

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Tribe: On Homecoming and BelongingTribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Author site

This book reflects upon how we are evolutionarily optimized to live in tribal communities, and how life in super-tribal societies (ones in which no one can know everyone else, where one has no shared fate, and where – for better or worse – one can easily end up invisible) is doing us in. The book sprang from an article Junger wrote about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD,) an affliction Junger found himself with after working as a war correspondent in Afghanistan (pre-911) and elsewhere. It might seem like there is a large leap from human social structures to PTSD, but it turns out where a community’s experience is all tied together, PTSD is relatively rare and / or fades quickly. It is because the afflicted soldier is going from the tribal entity (military unit) back to a decidedly conflicted super-tribe that trauma is so pernicious. Junger explores cases such as the bombing of London in WWII and the shelling and sniper attacks in Bosnia in the 90’s, where such afflictions were far rarer than one would expect because there was — to some degree — a shared experience of the traumatic events.

I found this book fascinating. It’s quite short. It has just four chapters. The first discusses the importance of tribe in human development, generally. It then looks at war, PTSD, and the challenge of returning home (and why so many soldiers have such difficulty doing so, though one would expect a peaceful world would be decidedly preferrable to a warring one.)

I found this book to be gripping and intensely thought-provoking, and I’d recommend it for all readers.

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PROMPT: Cultural Tradition

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Daily writing prompt
What’s a cultural tradition from your country that you love?
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I like Groundhog Day because it’s a beautiful reminder that any old pudgy rodent is as good as the smartest human / computer combination at making forecasts about the future. More than Thanksgiving, it’s the holiday that forces some humility upon us.

DAILY PHOTO: Kandy Dancers

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Photograph of a plate-spinner at the Kandyan Culture Centre in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Photograph of a dancer in a Garuda mask at the Kandyan Cultural Centre in Kandy.
Photograph of a trio of dancers in aquamarine costumes at the Kandyan Cultural Centre in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Photograph of fire-eaters at the Kandyan Cultural Center in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Photograph of a drummer at the Kandyan Cultural Centre in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

BOOK: “Shuhari” by Nobuo Suzuki

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Shuhari: The Three-Step Japanese Path to Lifelong Growth and SuccessShuhari: The Three-Step Japanese Path to Lifelong Growth and Success by Nobuo Suzuki
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Release date: August 11, 2026

I was introduced to the concept of “shuhari” as a student of Japanese martial arts, and over time I discovered it to be one of the most useful concepts for personal growth and development. Shuhari is by no means exclusive to martial arts and is applied to arts in the broadest sense — really to endeavors of any type (as is true in this book which references not only martial arts, but literary arts, graphic arts, cinematic art, and even sciences.) The idea is this: one begins by repetitively practicing what one is taught in as close to an exemplary fashion as possible (shu,) then one starts adapting the principles one has cultivated to changing and unpredictable circumstances (ha,) and finally one abandons the forms and embraces the spontaneous (ri.) In short, we follow the rules (shu,) break the rules (ha,) and abandon the rules (ri.)

Recent years have seen a flood of books on cultural life philosophies, starting and continuing with those of the Japanese culture, but venturing out into Scandinavian (Sisu and Lagom,) Goan (Susegad,) and many others. One could easily fill a shelf each with the popular books on “ikigai” or “ganbatte.” It’s kind of a surprise to see that it’s taken this long to venture into the invaluable concept of “Shuhari.” It is an idea whose time has come to go global.

In a broad sense, this is a book on learning and creativity, and I’d highly recommend it for anyone looking to reevaluate their approach to learning and / or creating.

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PROMPT: Cultural Tradition

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Daily writing prompt
What’s a cultural tradition from another country that you wish existed in yours?
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The Langar Hall (found in Punjab, Haryana, and wherever else Sikhs are found) is an excellent tradition. They are places that serve free communal meals every day. It’s not like a soup kitchen that attracts only poor, nor is it like the many institutions that make meals (implicitly or explicitly) only for one particular ingroup (e.g. members of a particular religion.)

PROMPT: Local Custom

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Daily writing prompt
What’s the most interesting local custom you’ve encountered?
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My wife and I once had tea in Nagaland with men who’d been cannibals in their youth, but they weren’t anymore (and — in point of fact — probably didn’t have the teeth for solid food anymore,) so I don’t think that counts.

For the most part, I don’t think of customs as being more or less interesting, just — sometimes — unexpected. I’ve noticed that most people see cultural customs as the strange behaviors other peoples do, while their own culture’s customs are largely invisible to them (i.e. “That’s just how things are done; it really couldn’t be done any other way.”) So, I guess it’s been most interesting, having returned from living abroad for more than a dozen years, noticing just how many strange and baffling things Americans do.

Slow Burn [Senryū]

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Photograph of an overgrown scale model of Dutch Square. The model is located on Bukit Cina (Chinese Hill.)
bedraggled buildings:
 nature digests what it eats
  ever so slowly.

Nature Overwrites Culture [Haiku]

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Photograph taken in Agartala at Gedu Mia's Mosque.
saplings sprout
 from the ornate trim
  of a once-grand mosque.

Stump Gator [Kyōka]

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Photograph of a young alligator resting on a stump in the Louisiana bayou, near Slidell.
Gator rests on stump.
 but my mind cannot rest.
  it's not "gator"
 and "stump" in the same place,
 but in the same sentence.