The revolving door

Reflecting today on my enjoyment of Ayran a Turkish beverage and my time in Turkey I thought about what experiences define us and what we allow to have meaning. Without a fixed North Star of strongly and widely upheld traditions there is a certain void that is formed in the place that these various rituals and trinkets have in our minds and our lives. Sure, I love Ayran but Turkey is not the only country I’ve lived in, it’s not the only different food I’ve eaten or drank and grown fond of. The majority Muslim country of Turkey has a phenomenal national beer, Efes. But isn’t Thailand’s Singha too noteworthy? Isn’t Malaysian Panang curry worth being remembered as much as Ayran? You see, in the absence of a strong centrality to one’s identity in fixed traditions in the globalized world of the individual consumer what you have is a forever revolving door of traditions, cuisines, rituals and beliefs that people try for a time and forget about just as quickly. In the extreme ephemerality of our times we are forever at the sampling table at the grocery where we are invited to try something to see if we like it. And if you think about it this image more than anything else would define members of the Millennial generation.

I hate to disparage a friend who will not be named but he has kind of moved from cause to cause, host culture to host culture, being engaged in this new venture or that. First its stopping the oil trains, then its helping kids in Myanmar then its following the Gandhi path in India. And well, so have I, first I’m into this startup thing, then its design work then its backend automation work. This sort of flipping of interests and even what ought to stable, core desires, isn’t limited to just the two of us. The old and irrelevant image of the American may have been the used car salesman or some shameless yelling fat guy, I think the new relevant one is someone who’s into Buddhism this week and communism the next one and being into Witchcraft Wiccanism the week after and maybe it’s gonna be Blockchain or maybe drop shipping will change the world. I think you get the idea.