Imagine

yesterday was an interesting day...i ended up at a wedding blog...there was peripheral discussion going on in the posts about the appropriation of other cultures and religion...basically about a non Jewish persons using a huppah...now apparently this is bad bad bad because as a non Jewish person you don't understand the culture and if you borrow this tradition you are going to piss off a lot of people.... basically the message was its just wrong don't do it...if you do... you have to find some inventive way to use it so that people don't think you are using a huppah...which i PERSONALLY find ridiculous...this is why i think that whole conversation was infuriating... and like a dummy i made the comment that this is why i think religion is ridiculous and you should do what you want because someone somewhere is always gonna be upset about it...so i kind of got pissed because someone equated my comment with violence... they said it was like punching someone in the face... of course there is more to it but that is the basic gist...to which i replied its not like punching someone in the face...


then the owner of the blog informed me that I don't get it because its not just about religion its about culture...which i do and i defended what i said... because whether its religion or culture or both... i personally think if you are doing something out of love its not wrong even though there are plenty of people who dont believe in sharing their culture or religion because its theirs alone... just so you know that is my view and it doesn't have to be yours...i also thanked this person for letting me express my views and that i wasn't intentionally trying to be offensive...similarly there were other comments that expressed what i was also trying to say...these other commentators were far more eloquent...and again some people wrote that the owner of the blog was pretty cool to let this discussion go on....


so in the end after many back and forths...the owner of this blog basically implied that if you borrow from other cultures it IS stripping down a culture which is violence ...Really?...i am sorry but i don't think so ...groups that have invaded other groups to be the dominant culture is what has brought violence and the stripping away of many peoples cultural identity... i also realize this is complicated issue but the destruction of another culture it is often because of resources and land and maybe another group just doesn't like your group for whatever reasons(they often involve god though)... its not brides who find the idea and beauty of the huppah who are stripping down cultures which brings this impending doom...she also kinda implied that i and others were not grown ups...which ultimately is fine because its her blog and her opinion...i just think for someone who is worried about cultural appropriation and the violence should have at least acknowledged that my words were not the same as physically harming someone but perhaps she does think that...maybe you the reader agree or disagree...whatever you think is RIGHT at least for your self... maybe you think i don't get it either...but i want you to know i do...i am just looking at it a differently than someone else.

If you are interested in reading here is a link...my comments are made under my name shellie...and the comments are closed on that post... so before anyone gets their panties in a bunch...i put imagine here because thats the place from which i am coming from...