Brush Your Teeth!

At Bradford's Carrot Festival, a vendor was giving away posters of a soccer athlete to the children who participated in the activity.  As the vendor joked that he and the athlete looked alike, I joked that he should tell the children that he IS the athlete.  To this, he replied, "Why should I say that I am him?  He should be wishing that he was me!"  Something struck me about his wise attitude.  And it was about me.  Why did I assume that being famous was better?  What cultural and social attitudes shaped me to conclude such thoughts before I had a chance to double-think it?  Were there social or cultural factors that influenced this man, who happened to have a slight Caribbean dialect, to come to different and healthier conclusions than me?

A book I was recently reading illustrated the differences between universal values, cultural values and individual values.  I know my personal values agreed with this man: fame is no whoop-di-doo.  My universal values do not recognize any difference between a famous person or a non-famous person: they are all equally human and that is what is important.  So my quick appeal to fame is cultural.  Even if I tried to ignore the flashing billboards, certain faces of people I don't actually know will flash in front of my eyes.  Details of their lives will bombard me from different angles, with an energy and urgency as if these details were crucially important.  This is not a critique about media.  It is a commentary on how we are continuously being socialized.  It is like when your mom, the school nurse, the dentist and toothpaste adds all get after you to brush your teeth.  Then you wonder why you lie awake at night feeling guilty because you forgot to floss.

The beauty of socialization is that we are never finished.  Just as everyone I've ever connected with is a part of who I am now, the person who I'll meet tomorrow will be a part of who I am in the future.  The vendor with whom I exchanged three lines affected me to ask questions of myself, which I then wrote down and am sharing with you.  Hopefully, this will mean you will go brush your teeth.

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