This week marks a year and a half in a completely brand new living situation. Its been a big step in many ways, some good, some bad. However, this is the first time in a long while that anyone in my immediate familial circle has lived decently close to extended family. After coming back from an extended work “trip” to the Balkans1, I’ve been in deep thought about the cultural differences that I have become aware of.
In America, a common greeting is “Hey, how are you doing?” The implicit understanding is to respond with “Good” and hide what actually is going on. Its an interesting cultural tidbit that says quite a bit about the evolution of western social norms. This culture in general dictates this parasocial idea of not actually having intent, but rather a thin veil of intent.
This basically reflects all of my issues over the last decade with my extended family, having words with zero intent to back them. Its been a problem that has greatly effected my whole immediate family. It has been the topic of conversations for literal years, and how it has ended up alienating their relationships greatly (whether or not they want to admit such). I really hate when people act this way. Its its akin to mocking indirectly, you say words and they mean nothing.
If you really care about people, don’t say you do, actually put in the time and effort to show that you really care. If you only make noise, you don’t really care. After all, making noise is quite easy.
Someday I will write about this. ↩︎
