{"id":805,"date":"2026-07-05T00:40:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T07:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/?p=805"},"modified":"2026-07-05T00:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T07:40:24","slug":"culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/05\/culture\/","title":{"rendered":"culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

be honest:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

is culture the ability
to sing the same songs together
in joyful abandon
with your neighbors?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is culture
a shared recipe,
or a coordinated
childcare plan?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is culture the fact that you’ve shopped
at the same Target,
or are recovering from the same expectation
to sit still and keep quiet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is culture the purchase
of the right brand,
that signals casual,
but not struggling<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

be honest:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

what is culture,
to you,
and who
is left out?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

are you
feeling proud
of your culture,
right now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

what opportunities to participate
in the culture you identify with
have you passed up because
you were too busy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

what happens
when no one
shows up
to cultural events?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

be honest:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

do the ones
who pay
your paycheck
have your back?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

does your work
fulfill the standard
you set for yourself
at 20?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

does access
to the levers of power
make your
family happier?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

does the time you spend
at work compensate you
for the time you’ve lost
with your family?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

be honest:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

what the fuck
are we, as people
who love, doing here,
right now?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

be honest: is culture the abilityto sing the same songs togetherin joyful abandonwith your neighbors? is culturea shared recipe,or a coordinatedchildcare plan? is culture the fact that you’ve shoppedat the same Target,or are recovering from the same expectationto sit still and keep quiet? is culture the purchaseof the right brand,that signals casual, but not struggling? … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"culture","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,27,124,28,2,6,14,26,16,15,9,39],"tags":[400,172,395,177,406,188,388,402,398,189,394,392,401,397,407,403,405,167,391,389,393,337,404,390,399,396],"class_list":["post-805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicle","category-didactics","category-education","category-ethos","category-family-music","category-neighborhood","category-neurodiversity","category-personal-narrative","category-poem","category-politics","category-reflection","category-work","tag-absence","tag-belonging","tag-busyness","tag-capitalism","tag-class-anxiety","tag-community","tag-consumerism","tag-cultural-events","tag-culture","tag-disillusionment","tag-employer-loyalty","tag-identity","tag-joy","tag-love","tag-neighbors","tag-performative-casualness","tag-presence","tag-pride","tag-recipes","tag-ritual","tag-shared-meaning","tag-systems-thinking","tag-time","tag-what-are-we-doing-here","tag-who-is-left-out","tag-work-life-balance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/saor1p-culture","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":766,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/29\/parts-is-parts-when-common-sense-misses-the-mark\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":0},"title":"Parts Is Parts: When Common Sense Misses the Mark","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"May 29, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A Mechanic\u2019s Case for Equity in Education I was recently trying to explain equity in education to someone who experiences language around equity as \u201cmumbo jumbo,\u201d (in their words). My mind makes analogies, and tries to find common ground. As we (me and my debate partner) are both Californians, my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/img_1425.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":783,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/15\/know-what-youre-doing\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":1},"title":"know what you\u2019re doing","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"June 15, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"there's no decolonization without dismantling the gender binary. the intersectional person is the one who binds community\u2014because they actually understand and empathize with everyone. countries and communities who stigmatize nonbinary identity and orientation are doing white colonizers' work: one-drop purity tests don't build you up\u2014they prove you're not good enough.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1490.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1490.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1490.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1490.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":308,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/03\/neurodiverse-teams\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":2},"title":"Neurodiverse Teams","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"June 3, 2025","format":"aside","excerpt":"See folks, I'm not just making this stuff up. Neurodiverse teams are significantly better at solving complex problems than neurotypical ones. I'm convinced that we evolved together because we actually need each other. A co-emergent strategy that has, for better or worse, made us very prolific as a species. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "neurodiversity"","block_context":{"text":"neurodiversity","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/neurodiversity\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":785,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/17\/oh-california\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":3},"title":"oh, california","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"June 17, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"as a practicing buddhist, \u201cleave no trace\u201d is a guiding principle embedded into every teaching: leave no physical trace of your passage through the busy world, and leave no stinky teaching behind that muddies the waters of the dharma. how do we practice this, living as we do with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1495.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":91,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/22\/way-down-yonder-in-the-brickyard\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":4},"title":"Way Down Yonder In The Brickyard","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"January 22, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Right-click to download WAY DOWN YONDER IN THE BRICKYARD Score and NotesDownload This song is brought to us from the Georgia Sea Islands by Bessie Jones, a great singer, teacher and popularizer of African-American culture in the 20th century. Here's what she had to say about this song: \"My grandfather\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family music"","block_context":{"text":"family music","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/family-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":413,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/23\/the-middle-way-hub-or-hollow\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":5},"title":"The middle way: hub, or hollow?","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"June 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Imagine a conversation about a trip to a museum between a person whose instrument of recall includes a detailed cinema projected onto the back of their eyeballs and a person with no access to visual formations at all. Imagine a conversation about a favorite album between a person who hears\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "didactics"","block_context":{"text":"didactics","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/didactics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":806,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions\/806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}