Security Blankets

I remember this one time [at band camp...no just kidding...I can't even play the guitar with any decency...] whilst I was working on a project for my Western European politics class, I read a book about the cycle of poverty in Great Britian. One section, was focused on the problem of immigration. It talked about how oddly enough, the British underclass wasn't made up of a majority of immigrants [in this case, Indians]. Rather, a majority of the British underclass was white. Interestingly enough though, there were still odd things about the Indian community that the author deemed worthy of talking about.

Most specifically, the author noted that the Indian immigrant community is Britian often tended to cling to more traditional Indian customs even moreso than their compatriots in India. Why would such a thing be true asked the author. The reason, as he brilliantly asserted, was due to what I will term the Security Blanket Effect. Whilst in a different country, the Indian immigrant feels a deeper sense of disconnect from his own culture than he did at "home". When in India, no one questions his heritage or connection to his homeland. So, if he chooses to skip out on some traditions, no one will mind so much. But in Britian, he feels as if his culture is constatly being affronted. So, he clings even more tightly to what could qualify him undoubtedly as Indian. These traditions he might have otherwise abondoned are now his security blanket in a far away land.

As I study far from home, I sometimes wonder if I could make it here in the "west" for 5 whole years. I wonder if I could live not in the South not in the Bible Belt and not with my family and survive. I feel myself ignoring the compulsion to quit saying ya'll. I refuse to stop sayin' "sir" and "ma'am" and still belive that "to sup'" [eat supper] is a verb.

A friend from Tennessee remarked the other day on the way home from Church that he listens to country music more since he came here. And he finds he'll defend accents to the death if need be, even though his might not be as strong as that of our brothers and sisters in Arkansaws.

I wonder what I'm using? Maybe nothing, maybe it's my use of the words "tarnation" and "jack-rabbit stupid" more than often that give away the fact that I am homesick. I don't know. I'm not sure I need a security blanket. In any event, I'd rather have a plane ticket.